This Appendix provides a detailed account of how placentas are redefined, several times, in order to make them available for scientific research. I include this detailed analysis in order to demonstrate how critically important both ontology and epistemology are to framing waste. As this research shows, scientists define placentas as waste (ontology) in order to secure the availability of placentas for their research. And this classification (epistemology) of human tissue as waste (and then not-waste, and then waste again) goes largely (but not entirely) unchallenged.

Phase 1: placentas are waste

Anthropological, nursing and bioethics literatures have recorded diverse interpretations of placentas across cultures and times (see Yoshizawa’s 2013 review). Beliefs that placentas are spirit doubles, omens or medicine, potentiate rituals around disposal, such as burial with significant objects, or consumption, such as placental dehydration and encapsulation. Despite working closely and directly with placentas, some participants were not aware of these practices:

Some participants were aware of cultural valuations of placentas, but when specifically questioned about them, mostly minimized the popularity and importance of certain public understandings of placentas as non-waste. As in the extract above, some participants suggested that women consider the placenta during their pregnancy as it pertains to the health of their foetus, or that women who have pregnancy complications are more mindful of its role.