There is a strong chance that you just read that headline and thought, ‘what is the world coming to?’ Well, even after reading the details, you will still probably feel that way.
Jordan Thiering, a mum-to-be from the US, has made headlines this week after having to go to court to win the rights to her own placenta.
The bizarre story began when Jordan, who is now 33 weeks pregnant, was talking through her birth plan with her gynaecologist and expressed her desire to encapsulate her placenta; i.e. have the placenta made into pills to take, just like a vitamin, after pregnancy.
You can imagine how surprised Jordan was, however, when her gynaecologist advised her to check with the hospital where she planned to give birth. When she did, she was told she would need a court order to obtain the rights to her own placenta.
Sharing her frustration with local news station 11Alive, Jordan said: "I’m thinking, ‘What? For my own body part? Why do I need a court order?’ 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.“
According to the court papers, the main issue rested on the fact that placenta was defined by the hospital as ‘medical waste’.
Despite the fact that there was little precedent for such a case, Jordan went ahead and petitioned her local authority for the rights to her placenta, with the help of attorney Jacqueline Hammick. On 17th May, Jordan was granted those rights.
The mum-to-be, who believes that the whole legal process was entirely ‘unnecessary’, has gone public with her story in the hope that it will encourage others to learn about their rights.
