Many years ago when I was still rather new at my job, I had a woman carrying an eight month old fetus come into the mortuary. She had bypassed the morgue as she was an obvious suicide and bypassed the hospital because by the time someone found her the baby was long dead.
I didn't know she was a suicide until after I had already started on the body. Seeing as how I had interned at the morgue and was a certified morgue tech, I was asked if I could handle removing the fetus, embalming both mother and baby, and arranging them in the coffin. I figured it wasn't going to be a problem. Sure, I had never embalmed anyone younger than 6yo, but how hard could it be? Harder than I thought. I had a lot of experience in the morgue, and a fair amount of experience in the mortuary, but had never done anything like embalming a baby who had never taken a breath of air. Removing the baby was relatively simple. I remember wondering why OB's get the big bucks for doing C-sections. I guess there are higher stakes when working with the living... higher insurance too.
Moving on- the jugular is anterior to the carotid, and very fragile. Even more so on a baby that was never born. I kept telling myself 'the artery is located along the posterior medial aspect of the lower third of the sternocleidomastoid muscle' over and over again. As I was digging around, trying to uncover the vein, I ran through it with my aneurism hook. Thick blood oozed out of the broken vein, filled the incision and dripped on the table like cold syrup. The heart may have been stopped, but the jugular is a natural drainage point, so puncturing it causes a bloody mess. I moved to the femoral, cursing. I found myself wondering how this woman and what was most definitely a child, not a fetus, died. Before starting the first and last bath this baby would ever have I glanced at his mothers information.
The family was Catholic, the woman had gotten pregnant (didn't say whether it was consensual, incestuous or rape), didn't want the baby but family pressure had kept her from an abortion, depression followed, but overall she had been a happy girl... this was her third suicide attempt in six months. I guess third time is the charm, eh? Of course there were markers on her body that indicated a different story than what had been written. There was no evidence of abuse, but she had scars indicative of a cutter and many scars between her toes. I questioned (silently) whether one or more of her 'attempts' had been accidental drug overdoses. But it is not my place to question, just embalm. I continued on my work, all the time wondering why this womans mother wanted her to be buried holding a child she had never wanted. I almost wanted to feel sorry for her. She killed herself trying to get away from the baby, but instead was laid in her final bed with him... tragic.
Before this case found its way to me, I didn't really have an opinion on abortion. This changed it for me. If she had felt like that was a viable option, would she have killed herself? Or was she depressed to begin with and just waiting for something to push her over the edge? I, of course, don't have the answer to that. I never met her while she was living and you can only learn so much after death. I am curious to know what pro-lifers opinion is on this situation... if this was your daughter would you have let her abort her son to possibly change the course of events?
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