Legitimate disposal of human remains... how?
Discussion
Hello PH
My old man is downsizing and having a bloody good clear out after 50 years of accumulation. Along his various travels he has acquired a medical skeleton. These days, they are made of plastic. However, when he was studying, plastics technology was not as advanced as it is today and so these artifacts tended to be real, deceased persons who had left their bodies to science.
Us kids always found it quirky and quite interesting to have a good peer over Fred in his/her box in the attic, but now that his/her time has come once again (poor bugger) we find ourselves in something of a pickle. It seems we can't sell him/her due to the human remains act, and in a test a few months back ebay were extremely unhappy with him/her being listed. I say again, extremely unhappy. We've tried medical schools etc, they're not interested because it is essentially human remains and, see above.
It would be nice to organize a decent burial, but we're reluctant to pay for a funeral for an artifact for which we ultimately have no personal or sentimental attachment, and a pauper's funeral seems a little callous. Besides, what on Earth does one put on the headstone? 'Here lies Fred, once loved by persons unknown and sold to science, then casually discarded miles from his/her place of birth at minimal cost to the taxpayer'?
The other callous option would be to dump him in the waste to incinerator, but somewhat high risk.
If it makes a difference, Fred is (we believe, anecdotally) female and is missing one arm and leg (from a medical training point of view, second limbs are redundant).
Dad also has a small inventory of conc. sulphuric acid but sadly you need nitric or hydrochloric acid for bones.
This is a serious post. My Dad isn't a maniac or evil genius, just an ageing gentlemen with accumulated gubbins from less heavily legislated times.
My old man is downsizing and having a bloody good clear out after 50 years of accumulation. Along his various travels he has acquired a medical skeleton. These days, they are made of plastic. However, when he was studying, plastics technology was not as advanced as it is today and so these artifacts tended to be real, deceased persons who had left their bodies to science.
Us kids always found it quirky and quite interesting to have a good peer over Fred in his/her box in the attic, but now that his/her time has come once again (poor bugger) we find ourselves in something of a pickle. It seems we can't sell him/her due to the human remains act, and in a test a few months back ebay were extremely unhappy with him/her being listed. I say again, extremely unhappy. We've tried medical schools etc, they're not interested because it is essentially human remains and, see above.
It would be nice to organize a decent burial, but we're reluctant to pay for a funeral for an artifact for which we ultimately have no personal or sentimental attachment, and a pauper's funeral seems a little callous. Besides, what on Earth does one put on the headstone? 'Here lies Fred, once loved by persons unknown and sold to science, then casually discarded miles from his/her place of birth at minimal cost to the taxpayer'?
The other callous option would be to dump him in the waste to incinerator, but somewhat high risk.
If it makes a difference, Fred is (we believe, anecdotally) female and is missing one arm and leg (from a medical training point of view, second limbs are redundant).
Dad also has a small inventory of conc. sulphuric acid but sadly you need nitric or hydrochloric acid for bones.
This is a serious post. My Dad isn't a maniac or evil genius, just an ageing gentlemen with accumulated gubbins from less heavily legislated times.
I've nothing useful to add except to say oh my 'king God, what a coincidence! My old man was a doctor and he too had a skeleton called Fred from when he was studying (back in the days of black and white). Most of Fred "lived" packed away in the loft... except for his skull, which was in a box in the old man's study. I found it when I was about eight, in one of those poking about in places you're not allowed in sort of forays you do when you're eight. Scared the absolute living bejebus out of me, and I was too scared to look in the olds' stuff for years afterwards.
I have no idea what the old man did to get rid of Fred though. He moved into a little flat when the olds got divorced and there was no sign, not even of Fred's dome, when we cleared his flat out after his death.
Funnily enough, my mum and I were just having a conversation about medical skeletons as we were in an antique/curio place earlier today and they had a plastic one as well as a real skull with the top of the cranium removed. It reminded her of the one her grandfather (a doctor) used to have. She said that said skeleton was not 'complete' and was a composite from several cadavers - this was done to avoid it being associated with a previous identity, apparently standard practise. So this might be the same? Maybe you could gift it to her from me as a leftfield Mother's Day present?
Edited by vsonix on Friday 4th March 23:50
I am going to make no bones about this, sneak into your local cemetery and find a grave that is awaiting a burial the next day, pop bones in and cover with enough soil to hide them so the next day it will be joined by another body and gets a proper burial, or are there any undertakers on PH
Long narrow box. Many moderate sized holes, lots of stones plus the corpse in the box.
Small boat in the Solent, while cruising over St Katharine's Point ammo dump, heave ho, bubble bubble bubble - jobs a goodun.
I may have just disclosed some info I didn't meant to... Where are you based? Give me a bell if you get stuck
I may also have a mate who is a pig farmer...
Small boat in the Solent, while cruising over St Katharine's Point ammo dump, heave ho, bubble bubble bubble - jobs a goodun.
I may have just disclosed some info I didn't meant to... Where are you based? Give me a bell if you get stuck
I may also have a mate who is a pig farmer...
steve2 said:
I am going to make no bones about this, sneak into your local cemetery and find a grave that is awaiting a burial the next day, pop bones in and cover with enough soil to hide them so the next day it will be joined by another body and gets a proper burial, or are there any undertakers on PH
We thought along these lines and then considered future archaeologists. How much confusion would there be? 2 cadavers in a single grave, one 100 years older than the other and missing, completely missing, complete limbs; buried at the same time; no coffin material and no clues on the headstone. No sign of fighting...Maybe it would be a case of 'ere, Mick, another one of them medical skeletons in this one' ... or maybe not
Go to numerous local dog walking areas and leave bits in each one, go home and tune radio to the local news channel.
ete It is pure coincidence I live less than a mile away from here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3570...
ete It is pure coincidence I live less than a mile away from here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3570...
Edited by alfie2244 on Saturday 5th March 14:30
OK, how do I get this into the Lounge?
I'm keen to avoid any approaches that may lead to Police, simply because they will likely have lots of questions. I can foresee any abandoning strategy resulting in plod, then CCTV, fingerprints etc. One would hope even the most rudimentary forensic investigation would quickly show he/she died long before any of us were born, but probably best to avoid the situation if possible.
It might be best to just keep it in the family and hand it down to my daughter (currently 2 - not really a suitable alternative teddy).
I'm keen to avoid any approaches that may lead to Police, simply because they will likely have lots of questions. I can foresee any abandoning strategy resulting in plod, then CCTV, fingerprints etc. One would hope even the most rudimentary forensic investigation would quickly show he/she died long before any of us were born, but probably best to avoid the situation if possible.
It might be best to just keep it in the family and hand it down to my daughter (currently 2 - not really a suitable alternative teddy).
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