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.

Women’s experiences of the consenting process for pregnancy remains disposal following early miscarriage

“…Hospital practices such as ceremonial disposal frame miscarriage as the death of a baby regardless of what women think of the material, 10 meaning women who do not want fetal personhood recognised are obliged to take part in practices which enact it. 11 The author was unable to identify any research that focused on the consenting process for the disposal of miscarried pregnancy remains. This anthropological research sought to explore women's understandings, attitudes and experiences of disposal of their pregnancy remains.…”

Heartbreaking anthropology hurts: Studying fertility rituals while struggling with infertility

“…Research on problematized reproduction treating pregnancy loss, miscarriages, abortions, and stillbirths as “social events” as much as biomedical phenomena are still limited (Kilshaw 2020a, 2020b). Anthropological understandings of miscarriage have considered how context and culture shape meanings, experiences, and management of pregnancy losses through interrogating understandings of bearing children and becoming mothers, the religious meanings of loss, and notions of fetal personhood (Middlemiss 2021). In this article, however, I privilege the repercussions of repeated pregnancy losses for ethnographic fieldwork and writing.…”

Employment leave for early pregnancy endings: A biopolitical reproductive governance analysis in England and Wales

“…The state also produces truth discourses about pregnancy endings through the bureaucratic and legal classifications with which it administers biopolitics through Lemke's (2001) governmental parameters or ‘borders’ (p. 191). These classifications entail responsibilities and produce inclusions and exclusions based around parental rights, such as in relation to the dead fetal body (Middlemiss, 2021a). It is therefore helpful to consider pregnancy endings in relation to the biopolitical production of persons and citizens for legal and administrative purposes.…”