When I was a young teen, I volunteered at the local YMCA to help set up a "haunted house" (actually a squash court) for Halloween. One of the decorations I pulled out of a storage closet was a display skeleton. I set it up and was having fun playing around with it when I noticed it had some metal fillings in the teeth...and everything was a bit TOO realistic.
My dad, during med school, had to purchase a human skeleton.
We're not quite sure what to do with it now. I'd like to give it a respectful burial, without causing a police response.
aguaviva 459 days ago [-]
I'd like to give it a respectful burial, without causing a police response.
Unfortunately that's not an option.
A respectful burial means contacting the authorities so that the remains can be properly identified, and their final disposition noted in the public record. Remember this was once a human being, likely with many relations, however far back. The remains could be of someone entirely forgotten, but could be the missing link in some family's long and painfully sad story, also.
Meanwhile, the tail risk of getting into some kind of trouble for attempting to sidestep this necessary process is quite considerable.
So there's really only one course of action available to your father's heirs. Since there's also a small but considerable chance of being hit with some kind of charge (even if you do contact the authorities in perfectly good faith, and presuming of course that no hanky panky was involved in acquiring the skeleton on the first place), the first step will be to contact a criminal defense lawyer.
> So there's really only one course of action available
I really, really was sure you were going to just advise them, “just leave the skeleton in your closet forever.”
ceejayoz 459 days ago [-]
There’s a difference between “authorities” and “police”. I’m fully aware it will need to be done through official channels.
aguaviva 459 days ago [-]
Right, but contacting authorities implies automatically a significant chance that the police will be contacted also (no matter what they might say to you initially).
Once that happens, you have no control over their response.
mojomark 459 days ago [-]
I was going to look this up to verify, but realized googling "do they still sell actual human..." probably isn't something I want in my search history. So, I'll just say, as a not-noo-fuzzy-recollection, I'm pretty certain that to this day some people who's bodies are donated to science may end up as actual educational props for medical students. In that light, the above thoughts about wanting/needing to track down this person and contact families seems unnecessary as that person did this intentionally.
That said, I absolutely recall seeing a documentary, in modern day, showing people's bodies used in science exhibits to this day. Their point was that while people had voluntarily donated their body to science, they were mostly unaware that this type of display was something that might happen.
wbl 459 days ago [-]
Why wouldn't you want a lawyer to help you? They are the only person who will be on your side in this no matter what.
fluoridation 459 days ago [-]
Immure it and leave it as a surprise for the future to find. Bonus points for leaving confusing clues around the house.
CoastalCoder 459 days ago [-]
Maybe give the local DA a call and ask for advice?
GuB-42 459 days ago [-]
What about calling the med school back? They may have a use for it for teaching (as your dad did), and if not, it should be a question they are familiar with.
throwup238 459 days ago [-]
> The skeleton’s bones are held together by wire, like you would see in a school biology set, and he suspects the IORM ordered the body through a catalog.
Kind of buried the lede there.
> He and Hatem believe The Bluebird’s skeleton could be that of a woman, based on its small stature and broad hips. Benkert said a historian he consulted in 2017 guessed the skeleton may have been a young man, possibly from India.
Given the timing, India or the dead body of an unclaimed indigent were my first guesses.
GJim 459 days ago [-]
In the late 19th and early 20th century it was commonplace for educational skeletons to be made from real bodies, frequently sold by poor Indian families. This only stopped when plastic became a practical option.
And before somebody cries foul; education is very important, and real bodies were once the only source of durable anatomically correct teaching skeletons.
giarc 459 days ago [-]
A colleague of mine studied physiology and anatomy at McGill University likely in the 1970s. She said the cadavers were mainly unclaimed bodies of homeless people from the city of Montreal. The rule was that all work was to be done in the university labs, but she said students often snuck body parts out to conduct dissection work after hours in their dorm rooms. A lot has changed in the field, but it wasn't that long ago that we treated the dead like a tool.
throw_pm23 459 days ago [-]
Times have changed, now the living are treated no better. I kid, I kid.
lemonberry 459 days ago [-]
In Michael Crichton's, "Travels", he discusses his experience dissecting a human body while in med school. The two most memorable bits: 1) the dissection triggered a hunger response in people and 2) they kept the hands covered to help the students dehumanize the body. I don't mean "dehumanize" in the sense of removing their dignity, but the hands apparently can make it more difficult to study the body as a subject and not a dead human.
I read it years ago, but remember really enjoying it.
pstrateman 459 days ago [-]
>the dissection triggered a hunger response in people
this is supposedly from the formaldehyde
lemonberry 458 days ago [-]
I had never heard this, but yeah, that's a thing. Thank you.
wslh 459 days ago [-]
Medical schools in countries like Argentina use cadavers as an essential tool for teaching anatomy, allowing students to gain hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of human anatomy.
bhickey 459 days ago [-]
You may have misunderstood the above comment. While using cadavers in medical education is commonplace, _taking body parts home_ is no longer the norm.
chasil 459 days ago [-]
However, cadaver parts are now surgically implanted in patients for a variety of reasons, and those are certainly taken home.
How is that related to medical students taking body parts out of a lab and dissecting them at home?
chasil 459 days ago [-]
The body parts are going home.
In some contexts, this is forbidden, unorthodox, or expected.
mncharity 459 days ago [-]
In 18th to early 19th century US/England, body snatching aka grave robbing was a common activity of medical students. And in England, it was a profession. As was guarding the freshly buried against such. When New York Hospital and Columbia didn't limit themselves to blacks, you got the 1788 Doctors' Riot and several deaths. A riot at Yale in 1824.
I wonder if you could teach history by emphasizing "surprises for the time traveler"?
lordfrito 459 days ago [-]
> Given the timing, India or the dead body of an unclaimed indigent
International treaty, all skeletons come from India. [0]
At least this is what was claimed in The Return of the Living Dead.
Why would be a man from India based on the timing. An Indian man buried under a Baltimore bar is weird irrespective of time.
Edit: Ah I see, it’s because Indian skeletons were frequently sold as educational tools.
bell-cot 459 days ago [-]
> Because of the skeleton’s age, The Bluebird [bar] said it did not contact Baltimore Police to look into the discovery. The department’s policy is ...
WARNING: This sort of policy varies by municipality. If you'd prefer to minimize unpleasant interactions with your local law enforcement, do not make assumptions.
This is the kind of reason I pay for good journalism. Not to get some endorsement for an election. I can make up my own mind. I want someone to do the searching and write up.
artie_effim 459 days ago [-]
Dang - that's like 4 blocks from my house!
pmdulaney 462 days ago [-]
Improved title: "Whose skeleton was buried by a secret society under this Baltimore bar?"
qup 459 days ago [-]
In the new title, the skeleton has gone from person to property.
Strang 459 days ago [-]
Grammatical possession does not imply property. "My grandmother," "my hometown," "my skeleton," etc.
drhagen 459 days ago [-]
In Chapter 21 of the Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis discusses the dangers of interchanging of the various flavors of "my". (Well, a fictional demon monologues about the utility of confusing "my" in the mind of humans, but that's the Screwtape Letters for you.)
458 days ago [-]
LoganDark 459 days ago [-]
I would say the skeleton is a property of the body. I wouldn't say I'm my skeleton - I'm just a flesh automaton animated by neurotransmitters...
cameroncooper 459 days ago [-]
"flesh automaton" reminds me of this great short story by Terry Bisson I came across in an issue of MIT's Twelve Tomorrows
I still get the heebie-jeebies thinking about it.
We're not quite sure what to do with it now. I'd like to give it a respectful burial, without causing a police response.
Unfortunately that's not an option.
A respectful burial means contacting the authorities so that the remains can be properly identified, and their final disposition noted in the public record. Remember this was once a human being, likely with many relations, however far back. The remains could be of someone entirely forgotten, but could be the missing link in some family's long and painfully sad story, also.
Meanwhile, the tail risk of getting into some kind of trouble for attempting to sidestep this necessary process is quite considerable.
So there's really only one course of action available to your father's heirs. Since there's also a small but considerable chance of being hit with some kind of charge (even if you do contact the authorities in perfectly good faith, and presuming of course that no hanky panky was involved in acquiring the skeleton on the first place), the first step will be to contact a criminal defense lawyer.
Quite some inheritance you were left with, there.
See also: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/nx-s1-5165150/skull-found-hou...
I really, really was sure you were going to just advise them, “just leave the skeleton in your closet forever.”
Once that happens, you have no control over their response.
That said, I absolutely recall seeing a documentary, in modern day, showing people's bodies used in science exhibits to this day. Their point was that while people had voluntarily donated their body to science, they were mostly unaware that this type of display was something that might happen.
Kind of buried the lede there.
> He and Hatem believe The Bluebird’s skeleton could be that of a woman, based on its small stature and broad hips. Benkert said a historian he consulted in 2017 guessed the skeleton may have been a young man, possibly from India.
Given the timing, India or the dead body of an unclaimed indigent were my first guesses.
And before somebody cries foul; education is very important, and real bodies were once the only source of durable anatomically correct teaching skeletons.
I read it years ago, but remember really enjoying it.
this is supposedly from the formaldehyde
A quick search results in "allograft bone."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_grafting
In some contexts, this is forbidden, unorthodox, or expected.
I wonder if you could teach history by emphasizing "surprises for the time traveler"?
International treaty, all skeletons come from India. [0]
At least this is what was claimed in The Return of the Living Dead.
[0] https://clip.cafe/videos/international-treaty.mp4
Edit: Ah I see, it’s because Indian skeletons were frequently sold as educational tools.
WARNING: This sort of policy varies by municipality. If you'd prefer to minimize unpleasant interactions with your local law enforcement, do not make assumptions.
https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...