You sure won’t like this:

OTTAWA, June 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the Quebec government prepares to present a bill to the National Assembly that seeks to end the practice of hospitals treating fetuses under 500 grams as biomedical waste, Ontario is, according to an as-yet unconfirmed report, gearing up for a newly instituted “Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Day”, which will take place annually on October 15. The October 15 Awareness Day is already recognized nationally in the United States, but will be a new innovation for Canada if the tip received by LifeSiteNews.com is well-founded.

As reported by Cyberpresse.ca, Quebec’s Department of Health and Social Services intends on tabling a bill before the National Assembly as early as September.  The department’s action will amend the law concerning hospital funeral practices for fetuses under 500 grams.

Currently, most hospitals dispose of such fetuses by incinerating them along with other waste tissues. The government initiative, however, seeks to propagate a practice that is becoming more popular in several Quebec Hospitals.

The hospital-Pierre Boucher in Longueuil, has a funeral director incinerate all fetuses, including embryos, and place them in an urn in a columbarium.

Likewise, the Hospital Sainte-Justine, pending ratification by its board of director, has recently revised its policy on the matter, electing to direct all “identifiable fetuses” to the Mont-Royal cemetery, regardless of weight or length of life.

Losing a child before he or she is born is traumatic enough without finding out weeks or months later that the remains of said child had been thrown out with the trash without the parents’ knowledge or permission. I don’t know how anybody could object to proposals that would put an end to such a harsh practice without sounding extraordinary callous, but I’m sure some will try anyway.