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Birth certificates for stillborns?

Professor Yaffle said:
I don't understand the problem. There is no clear distiction between a child and an adult either, but we generally create an arbitrary dividing line to allow adults to do things that children cannot - rather than just saying that because there is no clear division, we will just stop adults from doing those things too.
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But there arguments for the dividing line there are different. Here we are talking about issuing legal documents to make people feel better and for no other purpose, well why wouldn't people below that line need recognition of their loss? People recognize the loss of a someones child as a loss with out regard to if they are a minor or an adult.
 
Monkey Ghost said:
Our first was stillborn. He has a name, we refer to him by it, and the hospital made a photo album with him dressed in tiny newborn clothes.

He deserves a birth certificate.
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If you feel that way, he also needs a death certificate. Was one of those issued?

DR
 
Darth Rotor said:
If you feel that way, he also needs a death certificate. Was one of those issued?

DR
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I don't necessarily think that is a bad idea; as I've said, one of the difficulties when you have a child who is dead at birth, is that it tends to become a non-child in many ways, as if it never existed at all. Perhaps the certificates could be a way of mitigating that to some extent. Stillbirths are registered in many countries, so it should be possible.

We all grieve differently. What may seem strange to me could be important to someone else.
 
ponderingturtle said:
But there arguments for the dividing line there are different. Here we are talking about issuing legal documents to make people feel better and for no other purpose, well why wouldn't people below that line need recognition of their loss? People recognize the loss of a someones child as a loss with out regard to if they are a minor or an adult.
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As I quoted earlier, in the UK it is not solely to make people feel better. It is also for statistical and historical purposes.

Besides that, the fact is that people DO generally feel much differently about a (eg) 10 week miscarriage than they do about giving birth to a dead baby at (eg) 28 weeks. It is now common practice to encourage parents of stillborn babies (or those that die shortly after birth) to hold their child and have a photograph taken with them - perhaps to have a memorial service. A birth certificate would be part of that whole process.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Stillbirth/Pages/Afterwards.aspx
http://www.forgottengrief.com/forparentspage6.html
 
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Registering a stillbirth gives the parents an opportunity to acknowledge their child's birth and is also important for statistical records
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This is from Professor Yaffle's link. True, I think.

In Sweden the dividing line between a stillbirth and a miscarriage is a bit later, 28 weeks, but if it happens before 28 weeks, and the child shows signs of life, that is counted as a stillbirth as well. A bit fuzzy, but it seems to be working here, so perhaps there needn't be a sharp dividing line.
 
I am really conflicted about this one. I think it should be an option for the parents, but I think I'm really against it being mandatory (if that is even what is being pushed for).

This is a really personal thing for people. I'm a tad disturbed that it is being used as a political football.
 
Upchurch said:
I am really conflicted about this one. I think it should be an option for the parents, but I think I'm really against it being mandatory (if that is even what is being pushed for).

This is a really personal thing for people. I'm a tad disturbed that it is being used as a political football.
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If the parents don't want to register the birth (because they feel it would be too painful for them, for example), it can be done by the hospital, or someone who was present at the birth (again, I am speaking about the UK system).

I don't like it being used as a political football either. I think the pro choice camp can go a little overboard in denying any sort of humanity to an unborn child and it can come off as very insensitive.
 
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Stacey Campfiled, a state rep in Nashville tried to pass something like that a while ago.

It failed.
 
As has been said, life is just one long process of letting go.

Keeping some sort of remembrance of a departed loved one is understandable and probably universal among humans. It helps survive the grief and accept the finality of the loss. Whatever mementos you have of that person may be invaluable and in a sense keeps that person alive, even a stillborn baby in whom at one time you had so many hopes and dreams and even loved so much.

Having a legal document attesting to the birth of that dead baby may be priceless to some and trivial to others. I just don't know.
 
Walrus32 said:
Keeping some sort of remembrance of a departed loved one is understandable and probably universal among humans.
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Actually it is not universal.
I can't recall where, but there is/was at least one society where a dead person's name was never mentioned again, with all traces of that person's existence being erased.
 
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