Not sure but expect you are speaking theoretically. If my brother died, I doubt they'd just let me load his corpse into the back of my pickup. On the other hand they do release bodies to undertakers all the time but expect they are liscenced by the state to care and dispose of bodies properly. I presume this happened in PA.
I don't think Rick Santorum and his family loaded the baby in the back of the pickup. Secondly, doesn't the family have the right to the body? Talk about a basic human right.
I would have done a similar thing as hard as it would have been because the child deserves the dignity of being a person and being part of the family.
Bringing the baby home is what every family looks forward to. Should it matter if the child doesn't make it? It is the child's home as well.
For what it’s worth to you, we took the body of our 21-year-old cat home from the vet after euthanasia, washed him and combed his fur, and laid him out in our house overnight. The next morning, rigor mortis had not yet set in, and we petted him some more, wrapped him in a cloth and placed him in a box, and drove him personally to the crematorium. We will scatter his ashes on the family plot. He was a member of the family. So was that precious little child who died in their arms.