PRESS RELEASE
Voice of The Unborn Baby: Right to bury miscarried babies to be decided soon.PRESS RELEASE BY CAUSE FOR JUSTICE:
SUBJECT: Right to Bury Miscarried Babies to be decided soon
2 SEPTEMBER 2019 [ * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *]
On 14 and 15 November 2019, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria will hear argument for the purpose of deciding whether parents who lose their unborn child before 26 weeks in the womb have the right to chooseto receive the bodily remains of their miscarried baby for burial.
Under current South African law, babies who are miscarried prior to 26 weeks of gestation are regarded as “medical waste” (and disposed of together with other remains of medical and surgical procedures). This means that grieving parents are prohibited by law from receiving their baby’s bodily remains for the purposes of a burial.
The Voice of the Unborn Baby NPC (“the Applicant”) brought this matter to challenge the current law on constitutional grounds. Their case is based on the real and deep bereavement experienced by grieving parents and their consequent legal entitlement to bury their miscarried baby.
Cause for Justice (“CFJ”), a non-profit human rights organisation who seeks to advance constitutional justice in South Africa, has joined the matter as a friend of the court (an amicus curiaeparty). CFJ will assist the court in interpreting and applying the constitutional rights, values and interests implicated by the facts of this important case.
CFJ is of the view that the current state of the law is a dreadful miscarriage of justice and cannot remain unchallenged.
For grieving parents, the loss of their unborn child – whether at 26 weeks and 1 day or at 25 weeks and 6 days – is the loss of a precious human life and a loved one. South Africans should be legally entitled to acknowledge the human dignity of a precious human life and be allowed to bury their loved ones.
CFJ calls on the public to not remain silent, but to lend its voice and engage with the important issues raised by The Voice of the Unborn Baby matter. The profound and urgent questions this case raises about the promotion and protection of the right to human dignity in South Africa, require answers.
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For further queries, contact CFJ at:
Email: info@causeforjustice.org
Tel: 074 355 0775