‘Unethical’ practices at crematorium

“Unethical and abhorrent practices” have been highlighted in a report at Aberdeen Crematorium, where babies were cremated with unrelated and unknown adults.

The report was commissioned by the Scottish government.

The conclusions included: “The overall regulation of the funeral profession needs to be improved. Funeral directors as well as Cremation Authorities should be licensed and subject to a statutory regime of regulation and inspection.”

“Many parents relied wholly on the advice given by NHS staff and accepted in good faith the advice that there would be no ashes to be recovered from the cremation of their baby. This misleading information deprived many parents in Scotland of the opportunity to recover the ashes of their babies.”

“This report identifies incidences where babies have been cremated with an unknown, unrelated adult and/or their ashes have been disposed of without the knowledge of parents.”

A colleague told the Investigation, “As far as I know everyone has cremated infants with adults by putting them in at the beginning and by raking the adult forward first. That’s the way we were told, that’s the way it’s always been done. I’m led to believe that that’s the way it’s always been done from the day it was open.

“The way I looked at it, this dinnae feel right and that’s why when we got the new machines I changed the way I done it.”