‘Contaminated waste’?

Anne Swanson, 30, entered Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center April 12 for the Caesarian delivery of her baby daughter.

Other material is expelled at the time of childbirth. In nature, some animal mothers eat this tissue, either to clean up the area for purposes of hygiene and to disguise the presence of the young from predators, or to preserve its moisture and nutrient value.

Anne Swanson wanted her placenta. Practitioners of natural medicine had offered to grind up the dried material and place it in convenient capsules, on the theory that the loss of the hormones stored in the uterine lining is a cause of post-partum depression, and that consuming the tissue of the uterine lining could help ameliorate the condition.

But the hospital refused to comply, calling the placenta "contaminated biohazardous waste."

Really? Who contaminated it?

Anne Swanson went to court. On Tuesday, Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the hospital to return the placenta -- which has been frozen -- to Ms. Swanson within two weeks.

Too much time having passed to use it as she planned, the young mom says she now plans to bury it, although she adds: "I hope this brings about a better awareness about the benefits of placenta."

Not if Sunrise has anything to say about it. Hospital officials said they will comply, but Amy Stevens, system vice president for Sunrise Health, described the ruling as specific to Ms. Swanson, meaning the next new mom to make the same request will be plum out of luck.

Some may find Ms. Swanson's request odd. But there is no Nevada law prohibiting hospitals from returning placentas to mothers. Other hospitals will do so if a patient seeks it for specific religious or cultural reasons. How do cultural differences render this organ less "hazardous" for some families than others?

There would appear to be some level of arrogance, here -- a tendency to see the patient as a superstitious primitive, hardly qualified to be a full partner in the proceedings. But hey, it could have been worse.

They could have refused to give her the baby.