Abortion laws
have been a fickle subject of much debate amongst Texans for quite a while.
However, a specific part of the abortion law concerning fetal disposal methods
have been hotly disputed when the law itself was supposed to be put in effect
on December 16, 2016. The main conflict point at hand is the argument over
whether fetal tissues are considered as human remains or not. Based on this
argument, it might impose a requirement from current fetal disposal into sanitary
landfills to mandatory cremation or burials. All of this stems from the core
argument of whether or not fetal remains should be treated humanely after
abortion.
The main
problems are not all based in ethics as cremation and burial requires
additional expenses for which who the payer is, is still being disputed in the
law. The cost estimation is coming out at about $400 to $700. My take is that
fetal remains should be considered as human lives and should be treated as
such. In terms of economic impacts, the law could allow mass cremation or
burials, which were estimated at $0.60 per patient, offering solutions for
possible additional costs. However, I do believe these additional costs should
not serve as a deterrent for people that wants to have an abortion. Although
this might cause additional health care coverage questions as well as opening
up questions on ethics and morality, I strongly believe the state should have a
hand in providing for abortion patients.
Perhaps requiring patients to be prompted on whether they care about the fetal remains and whether they should be treated humanely, or not care at all. For those that do not care about the outcome of the fetal remains, mass cremation and burials can be provided by the states for the hospitals or third-party as $0.60 is a manageable economic cost that the state can and should burden for the sake of ethics on fetal lives.
