Your article "Caring for a Patient Having a Miscarriage" (Health Matters, July 2005) contained much helpful information, but I take exception to the authors' repeated references to the fetus as "fetal tissue." If I'm giving sensitive care to a woman who's had a miscarriage, I'm not going to use terms such as "fetus" or "fetal tissue." It's her preborn baby. Calling the fetus and placenta "products of conception" may be appropriate when instructing a woman about an elective abortion, but using this terminology for a woman experiencing an unwanted spontaneous abortion is insensitive and inappropriate. I also think using this terminology can be desensitizing to nurses.

The general public can recognize, thanks to ultrasounds, that the "products of conception" aren't just tissue but a living, developing baby. Why can't nurses recognize this as well?

SHARON LARSON, RN, BS

South Beloit, Ill.