Pregnancy remains, infant remains, or the corpse of a child? The incoherent governance of the dead foetal body in England

ABSTRACT

In English law, the conventional view is that human personhood is produced by live birth, kinship is produced by relations between persons, and corpses are produced on the death of persons, which are then buried or cremated. Beings produced by human pregnancy which do not fit these discursive categories are classified as ‘pregnancy remains’, have no personhood or kinship, and their disposal is regulated as human tissue. However, this paper argues that the governance of the dead, born, foetal body in England, in fact, produces forms of foetal personhood, through the regulation of the material dead bodies of foetuses and babies. Furthermore, the assignment of responsibility for disposal and post-mortem decisions to kin of the dead foetal being also produces a relational form of foetal personhood. The examination of second-trimester pregnancy loss in England through fieldwork with women who have experienced foetal death, premature labour, and termination for foetal anomaly before 24 weeks’ gestation reveals how governance of the dead, born, foetal body in England is incoherent.It also illustrates the effects of this incoherence on parental choices about the range of actions available after pregnancy loss in relation to the material body of the foetal being or baby.

KEYWORDS:

• Corpse
• disposal
• pregnancy loss
• governance
• personhood

Acknowledgements

With their permission, I would like to thank the women who took part in the research: Abbie Chanter, Alex Smith, Becki Phinbow, Carly Lobb, Caroline Kearsley, Cassie Young, Catherine Lee, Charlene Yates, Emily Caines, Emma Allison, Emma De-Riso, Fran Osborne, Hannah Mazouni, Helen Dilling, Helen Woolley, Jessica Nordstrom, Katie, Lisa Congdon, Karen Morgan, Kirstie Collins, Laura, Lauren Wilcox, LeahAnne Wright, Mo, Pip Ali, Sam Cudmore, Sarah Glennie, Sharron Whyte, and those who chose to remain anonymous.

And to remember their babies: Adelaide Caines, Aishlynne Lewis, Alice Phinbow, Beau Adi Cawse, Belle Osborne, Ben Hayman, Bobby Allison, Daisy, Dylan, Emma Osborne, Grace Collins, Harry, Hope Mazouni, Hope Turner, Isabelle Caines, Isabella, James Hamer, Liam, Luke, Max, Michael Smith, Owen Hamer, Rain Yates, River Yates, Robin Wilcox, Rose Whyte, Rowan Glennie, Saoirse, Seth Nordstrom, Sophie Dilling, Stanley Lee, Stevie George Baker, and those who were mourned but not named.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Where they requested it, women who took part in the study have been given pseudonyms in the body of the text.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article for the time and thought they gave my work, which considerably improved the paper. The research was funded by a doctoral scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/J50015X/1]. Due to ethical concerns, participants did not consent to the sharing of their data, and as such the data supporting this publication are not publicly available.

Notes on contributors

Aimee Middlemiss

Aimee Middlemiss is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Exeter whose research is a feminist examination of second trimester pregnancy loss in South West England.