For aborted foetuses, a last resting place

This cemetery is not for adults. It is in fact a cemetery for aborted embryos and pre-birth babies, set up in Huong Tra District’s Huong Ho Commune in 1992. Each grave contains up to 35 foetuses, collected from hospitals around Hue.

The cemetery has not been given a formal name, nor is it a public project. It is the result of the efforts of a group of Catholic residents, who consider aborted embryos as legitimate specimens of human life, that needed to be buried after death.

They are motorbike taxi drivers, street-food vendors, house workers and farmers. Working discreetly and insisting their work not be publicised, few are aware of the group’s work. But recently, the cemetery accidentally made local headlines, even prompting a wave of public support, albeit with some controversy. Today, the cemetery is a regular pilgrimage site for young mothers visiting their terminated babies.

Truong Ngoc Ho (not his real name) said his group did not think much of what they were doing when they started. They simply believed the foetuses needed to be buried away from landfill sites and animals.

Ho, who is responsible for the cemetery behind his house and for burying feotuses, said: “We’ve never defined what the purpose of our work was. We just had a deep sympathy for the aborted babies and wanted them to have a place to rest in peace.”