The Tobit civil association came into being in September 2013 as a response to the current indecent handling of the bodies of stillbirths, foetuses following miscarriage included, and disposal thereof in an incineration plant of public health facilities in the Czech Republic. It strives for a pious handling of the bodies of stillbirths, their burial and recordings with the Register Office. The motivation of the founding members of the association consisted in their own negative experience with the approach of health-care facilities, which made giving the stillbirths over for a due and decent farewell impossible.
The stillbirths are not recorded neither in a health-care facility nor the Register Office; under the Czech body of laws it fails to involve human mortal remains, the medical certificate of cause of death is anonymous and there is no death certificate. The stillbirth is an anatomic and pathological waste which can be traded in with impunity.
"Tobit came into existence spontaneously based on negative experience of a couple of parents with current practices. Its members are persuaded the bodies of stillbirths should be handled with the same piety as with any other corpses. Bereaving parents ought to be allowed to obtain bodies of their children for burial, where they ask for them. The association intends to bury the stillbirths whose funeral was not arranged for, in grave no. 119 at the Vinohrady Cemetery to avoid a mass indecent disposal thereof as an anatomic and pathological waste, " said chairwoman of the new initiative Jana Hynková.