Law review promised after Hong Kong couple’s agony over fetus labelled ‘medical waste’
City’s No 2 health official meets lawmaker to discuss case of parents unable to retrieve boy miscarried at 15 weeks
Undersecretary for Food and Heath Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee gave the assurance during a meeting with Labour Party legislator Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, who was contacted by the lawyers of parents Kevin and Angela, who lost their son at 15 weeks.
Bosses at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung prevented the couple from giving Wally a proper funeral because the baby fell short of 24 weeks, the time at which public hospitals begin treating the fetus as a life.
They were then told they could take Wally home on condition that they find a proper place to bury him. But Kevin and Angela, which are not their real names, were left in bureaucratic limbo as the hospital would not issue the necessary documents for cremation or burial in a public facility.
During the meeting Cheung said he asked Chan – tipped to be the next health minister – about the possibility of amending the law to help other parents in future.