34 unborn babies found buried in garden of Polish doctor

(LifeSiteNews) — The bodies of over 30 unborn babies have been found buried in the garden of a Polish doctor who is now facing 12 years in prison.

According to media reports, Magdalena H. was arrested by Polish police in a hotel last Friday morning after construction workers who carried out renovation work at her former property discovered the human remains and alerted police.

The property in the village of Lutoryz in southeast Poland was searched by hundreds of police officers using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.

The remains of 34 human fetuses were found buried among microscopic slides, documents, and paraffin blocks used to preserve human tissue.

Krzysztof Ciechanowski, spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office, said that the medical equipment “was most likely used to perform tests by the detained woman, who is a pathologist by profession.”

Ciechanowski added that the 57-year-old female doctor said that “she brought and buried the fetuses found on her property.”

Local media outlets reported that Magdalena H. had acquired the fetuses from the local hospital that she worked in during the COVID lockdown and used them for medical research at home. As a medical pathologist, she had access to the remains in a professional setting, possibly from miscarriages or stillbirths. Magdalena H. placed the remains in bags and buried them in the grounds of the house, which she sold two years ago.

The case has caused an uproar in the Catholic country, with the question arising of how she could obtain the corpses of unborn babies. Given Poland’s strict abortion laws, some have speculated that they could have been obtained through illegal abortions. However, so far, investigations are still ongoing and the exact origin of the bodies has not yet been confirmed.

The doctor has been put into three months’ detention while the investigation continues.

“This investigation is in its very early stages. There’s still a lot of work ahead of us,” Ciechanowski said.

The charges against Magdalena H. include desecrating corpses, improper waste handling, and abandoning hazardous materials in an unauthorized location.

The doctor did not plead guilty to the charges but “indicated that she herself brought and buried the human fetuses found on her property, as well as other medical waste,” the prosecutor’s office spokesman said.

The identity of the unborn babies and whether Magdalena H. acted alone have not yet been determined.