I'm not sure what was more shocking. The fact that customs agents discovered two human fetuses in jars in luggage at the Miami International Airport? Or the fact that the women who brought these bizarre packages into the US aren't in any trouble.
Really, folks, carrying around fetuses is legal? That's ... well, it's creepy, for one. And it's so mysterious that I just can't leave it at that!
According to media reports, the fetuses, one male and one female, were determined to have been stillborn -- they were never viable. So at least we can write foul play and the abortion debate off the list of what ifs. But here's where it gets really iffy: the fetuses were also not the product of either of the women's wombs (one woman was in ther 60s, the other in her 70s). In fact, customs agents are taking the word of the Cuban-American women -- who were coming back into the country after a trip to Havana -- that they didn't even know what they had packed in their bags.
The ladies said they'd picked up the jars from a Santeria priest back in Cuba, who had asked them to make a delivery to someone here in the states. Hmm. OK. But still. Human fetuses, people. In jars! Being trafficked internationally! By people who didn't have any connection to them!
I don't mean to be culturally insensitive, but I think it's also worth nothing that Santeria is a religion known for its use of animal sacrifices in its rituals. Cuban-Americans who practice Santeria have even gained permission to do so here in the United States. Considering it was a Santeria priest in Havana who sent these fetuses over to the states, your mind can do a little jumping, and connect the possible dots here, folks.
Maybe it's because I am a mother, but I can't just nod and say, OK, no harm no foul here because the customs agents didn't find a broken law. What about the people who created these fetuses? Didn't they bury them? Maybe in Cuba they gave permission for a hospital to take care of disposition of the body ... but something tells me they weren't thinking they'd land in the hands of some priest who would then hand them off to a stranger for a trip in a jar to America.
It's too strange to me to think stillborn babies would simply end in jars, in the luggage of some strangers, on a plane. I'm thinking they were stolen from a hospital or even, I hate to say this, maybe from a cemetery? Ugh. Honestly, I'm shuddering here. Literally! Even if the women aren't charged, someone has to explain what's going on here!
Can you just let this lie? What do you think should be done here?
Image via mjtmail (tiggy)/Flickr