# Can have have my corpse skeletonized, legally? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 11, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461 "2010-01-11T01:54:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/21 "2010-01-13T17:52:20Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Exactly! Just order some [dermestid beetles](http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/kits.html) and get that colony going! Once you have a bathtub’s worth, just die and put your carcass into the tub. You’ll be skeletonized in weeks. Those are used, IIRC, in the movie version of _Gorky Park_ by a Soviet forensic pathologist to get the flesh off a human skeleton found at a crime scene. And consider the curious posthumous existence of British philospher Jeremy Bentham: [Jeremy Bentham - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham#Auto-icon) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/22 "2010-01-13T18:01:38Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Okay, here’s the setup: I live in the United States, and after my death (hypothetically, anyway) I want to have my corpse defleshed, articulated, and then given to my next of kin to be kept in a tasteful glass case. As a Doper, you must … _must_ rig the tasteful glass case to blow people’s minds. You must make sure your skull is mounted with a big smile, then have your hand arranged like a gun so that when people lean over and look, you’ll be saying [“Gotcha Ya”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=80870). ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/23 "2010-01-13T18:36:46Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > As a Doper, you must … _must_ rig the tasteful glass case to blow people’s minds. You must make sure your skull is mounted with a big smile, then have your hand arranged like a gun so that when people lean over and look, you’ll be saying [“Gotcha Ya”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=80870). Have you ever seen a frowning skull? ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/24 "2010-01-13T18:53:58Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Have you ever seen a frowning skull? I’ll have mine winking. ---
**Author:** ![Fastidiots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fastidiots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fastidiots)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/25 "2010-01-13T18:56:26Z")
It will surprise you how easy it is to get the Hamlet treatment. Simply place said severed head into a pot of water, and let boil for 4 to 5 days. You’ll be left with a cauldron of rather putrid soup, and a mostly defleshed skull (for this reason it’s advisable to change the water a few times). Simply remove remaining vertebrae, and shake the liquid brains from the hole in the base of the skull. Then let your skull sit in a vat of bleach for an additional 4 to 5 days, and finally perch it in direct sunlight to dry it out. The above is the procedure for poor-mans trophifying of his deer spoils. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/26 "2010-01-13T19:03:56Z")
I very badly want my skull to have a role in a stage production of “Reefer Madness: The Musical.” There’s _got_ to be some way you could work a skull in. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/27 "2010-01-14T00:47:55Z")
> [@tvvat](#): > > It will surprise you how easy it is to get the Hamlet treatment. Simply place said severed head into a pot of water, and let boil for 4 to 5 days. You’ll be left with a cauldron of rather putrid soup, and a mostly defleshed skull (for this reason it’s advisable to change the water a few times). Simply remove remaining vertebrae, and shake the liquid brains from the hole in the base of the skull. Then let your skull sit in a vat of bleach for an additional 4 to 5 days, and finally perch it in direct sunlight to dry it out. > > The above is the procedure for poor-mans trophifying of his deer spoils. Almost all natural history museums, IIRC, use flesh-eating beetles. That also seems more thrifty, quicker, and less gross than your method. But YMMV.😃 ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/28 "2010-01-14T03:21:18Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Almost all natural history museums, IIRC, use flesh-eating beetles. The beetles are one of the last steps, just before bleaching I believe. Their intended to get the little bits that are left over from earlier stages. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/29 "2010-01-15T00:24:57Z")
Has the OP been answered? I think we have been sidetracked with the means to skeletonize and forgotten about the main point which was the legal side of it. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/30 "2010-01-15T02:22:29Z")
> [@Sapo](#): > > Has the OP been answered? I think we have been sidetracked with the means to skeletonize and forgotten about the main point which was the legal side of it. That subject is covered in _Stiff_, the book I linked to above. I don’t have a copy of it here, so I can’t check. I do remember being disappointed that it wouldn’t be feasible for me to end up hanging in a classroom after I died. I believe that there were some legal impediments to that, but I don’t remember the details. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/31 "2010-01-15T13:41:53Z")
What’s the usual source of cadaver for medical school? Aren’t they unclaimed corpses and donation made through last wish and testament? It shouldn’t be that hard for someone to volunteer as long as you don’t have very specific plans on where you want to end up. The OP’s wish of ending on the living room of some unsuspecting relative might be harder since it is not for the sake of science. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461/32 "2010-01-15T15:14:18Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Have you ever seen a frowning skull? No, but I’ve seen the Grateful Dead a few hundred times 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-have-have-my-corpse-skeletonized-legally/524461.md?page=1)