Here’s the story. My wife just got back from Berkeley where she helped a friend give birth–and of course it all happened at home, in some kind of tub, underwater, with violins playing and midwives hovering about. Here’s what she says happened next. Out came the afterbirth, which was carefully collected in a pot and put in the fridge to keep cool. Through the day, various vegetarians who dropped by to pay their respects asked about the placenta. My wife inquired, and was told that a certain stripe of high-minded vegetarian eagerly prepares and devours placenta stew, the placenta being the only form of meat that does not involve the slaughter of some innocent animal. Can this be true? And if it is, why isn’t some shrewd entrepreneur bagging cow and ewe placenta and selling it at the Jewel?
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Love to accommodate you, Ripster, but once again we find ourselves outgunned by reality. Having investigated the matter with my customary thoroughness, no small achievement under the circumstances, I can report the following facts: (1) chowing down on placenta doesn’t happen often, but (2) it happens. May God have mercy on our heathen souls.
The doctor, suffering an embarrassing failure of nerve, did not sample the stew himself, but says it smelled something like liver. The veggies munched away gamely but didn’t look very happy. One woman, in fact, became nauseated, which the doctor attributes to a lack of exposure to organ meats. Having seen a few miracle-of-childbirth movies in high school, however, I’d say there’s a simpler explanation.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
