Mississippi Woman Sues for Right to Own and Eat Placenta
Placenta smoothies for everyone!
So, this is pretty gross, but to each her own (placenta smoothie). ::shudders::
After extensive research, pregnant Jordan Thiering decided she wanted to take the afterbirth (placenta) and whip it up in a smoothie. When she talked to her OBGYN, she was told to check with the delivering hospital. The hospital told her she would need a court order.
“I grew my baby, I grew my placenta,” Thiering said. “There should be no one that can tell me what I can or can’t do with it.”
The Mississippi Department of Health told Thiering she was considered a “third party” to her placenta.
The Clarion Ledger reported:
“If I give birth to my baby and then I give birth to my placenta, do you own my baby, too? Do I have a third party to my own child? Well, of course not. So then why am I the third party to my own body part? It just doesn’t seem to make sense,” she said.
According to a memo obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, state epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs defined the placenta as “medical waste.”
The memo states, in part, “no hospital or other facility may release non-infectious medical waste (including placental tissue) without there first having been obtained by a court order, or other judicial mandate, which will assure proper disposal by the release.”
Which contacted for comment, MSDH spokesperson Liz Sharlot said, “We are not a pivotal party in the lawsuit.”
Confused and frustrated, Thiering turned to a Facebook group for moms asking for advice. She posted what she had been told and was contacted by attorney Jacqueline Hammack.
Thiering nor Hammack, who specializes in women’s health issues, said they had ever heard of a woman having to obtain a court order to get her placenta.
“I told her I would love to help her out, that this was a crazy thing she was experiencing,” Hammack said. “Placenta release was a new endeavor for me but I read the law, talked to her, got all the pertinent facts and I made a petition that I hoped would be sufficient and it was.”
Thiering petitioned the Rankin County Chancery County on May 2, asking for the rights to her placenta. Judge John McLaurin granted the order on May 17.
“It was pretty simple but totally unnecessary in my opinion to need any of that,” she said. “I don’t think it’s right for someone who has no experience to dictate what a woman can do with her body…he’s not a woman. He shouldn’t have a right to dictate what I can do with my body.
“It’s your body part and no matter what women want to do with it, it’s their right to have it.”
Mississippi’s Department of Health is open to changing the policy so that a court order won’t be needed for other women seeking custody of their post-birth placenta.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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Comments
TMI
I disagree with what she’s doing, but I stand up for her right to do it.
there’s a Constitutional right to be silly/stupid, but i really wish people wouldn’t exercise it so much…
Not sure what’s worth fighting over on this one.
what should scare everyone is that this moonbat is creating another generation of special snowflakes
“extensive research” = “reading web pages that agree with my delusions”
A smoothie? Come on, Jordan – where’s your imagination?
Placenta and onions is always a crowd-pleaser with my family. And, speaking of comfort food, it doesn’t get much better than chicken-fried placenta and red-eye gravy. Yummy! Just be careful – placenta can get tough and chewy in a hurry.
Placenta parmesan is another quick and easy favorite, and with a tossed salad and some crusty bread makes Italian night special. It pairs well with a chianti classico. Mamma mia!
Although it takes attention and patience, placenta polenta can be a first class side dish to fit any menu. An earthy wild mushroom and placenta risoto is another excellent accompaniment.
Leftover placenta can be paired with eggs, chives, and a nutty gruyere for a real stick-to-your-uterus breakfast.
Finally, to satisfy that “special someone” in your life, try pan-seared placenta medallions with a peppercorn-cabernet reduction. Imagine the look on his face when you serve up a truly gourmet dish while reminding him that you made it all by yourself.
Do you have any good possum recipes? Something with tatters and white gravy would be good.
This is pretty unusual for people who give birth in hospitals. I’m fairly sure my “birth plan” had no placenta question in it.
Strangely enough, this is actually a “thing”, and to my knowledge has been for at least four decades.
The hospital’s problem is that states control the definitions of what counts as “medical waste” and what is considered a proper corpse; doctors or hospitals don’t get to determine it. They should consider themselves fortunate that most of this stuff is considered medical waste, like cut hair, fingernail clippings, blood samples, amputated limbs or diseased organs. Usually disposal must be by something like incineration, and there’s a small industry devoted to that business. In the case of a diseased organ, incineration makes some sense; or it least it does until locals learn about it, and then everyone goes into a tizzy that smoke from, say, blood samples with hepatitis are going into their air. And what will happen when the carbon footprint people wake up to all this won’t be pretty.
If something is not classified as medical waste, well, that’s not pretty either. I know of cases in which doctors have handled extremely premature deliveries, fetuses so unformed that calling them “stillbirths” seems bizarre. But they’re still not classified as waste, and certificates of death and burials are legally required. Obviously a woman who’s just had such a medical emergency is not going to be cheered up by the news that she’ll have to pay for a proper legal burial, too. The medical establishment has ways of making the corpus disappear in a perfectly legal but low-profile manner. But, like the “crisis” of a very small population of m-to-f trannies using women’s rooms, it’s a non-problem which doesn’t need a solution. Publicity will just foul things up.
In this case, just get the court order and shut up about it. Jeez. Some states are more anal about the whole thing than others.
According to our current Administration, you didn’t grow your placenta
Planned Parenthood wants the baby, not the placenta.
Why does my nasty, suspicious mind tell me that this is a test case for something else?
“I grew my baby, I grew my placenta. There should be no one that can tell me what I can or can’t do with it.”
With the baby or the placenta? By her reasoning, she should be able to eat both or either. After all, she “grew” them.
This is by far the most disgusting and just plain disturbing thing I have ever read. I know mother dogs eat theirs ( I had to two female dogs give birth, one twice and the other once) but that does not mean a human should! My God what is wrong with people?
Humans have eaten placenta many times before. It’s a regular practice in some countries.
It’s certainly not palatable to me, but she does have a right to it. I have a feeling the hospital wants it for stem cells.
Most mammals do eat the placenta after birth. Less draw for predators and the mother regains some of what she invested in the pregnancy. Still it’s gross.
Yep, it’s a source of food, and it gets rid of the waste surrounding the young.
It’s not gross. It’s just a part of life.
Maybe for desert, she can eat her feces.
I am wondering about wine pairings. Maybe a fruit forward Zin?
The baby not having any rights to life as it’s your own body is a different story. This…this is definitely her body.
In my medical school class skit 35 years ago we had a comedy routine for “Placenta Helper”. If we had only known…
She’s just trying to break her addiction to Big Macs.
Two all beef patties, placenta, lettuce, cheese on a sesame seed bun
It is the kid that I feel sorry for. Imagine a loon like this for a mother. We are talking 40 years on an analyst couch
It’s a test case to establish ownership of the cash value of a bellyful of fetal tissue.
I look forward to the class action suit against PP.
Isn’t this a form of cannibalism if she or someone else plans on eating it?
Placenta Helper was a SNL skit in the 1970’s.
So what does this say about umbilical cord blood banks? Is the cord considered medical waste? What if she wanted to keep the placenta for similar purposes as the blood?