Under British law, the crucial recent case is that of Anthony-Noel Kelly, an artist who was charged, convicted and jailed for stealing body parts.
Traditionally in England the law didn’t regard a body as a possession of anyone and hence something that couldn’t be stolen. Once upon a time, this led to various work-arounds like bodysnatchers being prosecuted for nicking the burial clothes that happened to shroud the body they were carting off. Which in turn led to to the standard practice amongst snatchers of stripping the bodies of their clothing. (Ruth Richardson’s 1988 classic Death, Dissection and the Destitute is stuffed full of such details.)
[QUOTE=Colibri]
I used to teach Human Anatomy, but since it was for non-pre-meds we dissected cats instead of cadavers. But we had plenty of real human bones and other human body parts in jars around the lab.
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One of the medical schools (NY State) I interviewed with gave students taking anatomy a box of human bones to study at home.
[QUOTE=Bippy the Beardless]
If Human bones are so expensive, is it possible to have your own bones sold off as part of a will to benefit your heirs?
[/QUOTE]
No need. Some unethical b******d will slice out your bones and sell them and stuff PVC pipes in your legs without you having to do a thing. :mad:
Here is the update for those who are interested. This is about the stripper and the body parts. It seems like the original charges of improper disposition of human remains were dropped after the origin of the parts were revealed during the investigation. I’m sure the biggest concern was to find out where the parts came from and if there was some other crime involved such as murder. It seems that the skulls were obtained legally. The hand was stolen by a then med student and he gave it to the stripper for a job well done. The doctor plead guilty to theft and she was charged with receiving stolen property. He is getting 5 years probation and can’t apply for a medical license in New Jersey during that time (he is a resident in California so no big deal). She is going to enter a pre-trial intervention program which will clear her record if she doesn’t commit any crimes.
I know this is old, but I hope someone might know the answer to the question I have.
I’m a Dominatrix and a slave of mine is going to be castrated by a surgeon. I want to know if it’s legal for me to keep and plastinate his testicles. He’ll be quite alive and well after the surgery, and he will give consent for me to own them. I know, it’s weird, but it would be like a trophy in my line of work.
MistressEviscia, if you indeed are on the level and your nonce username was chosen to match your first posting topic, welcome. Of all the threads of all the forum joints in the world.
Well, you may wish to actually contact Gunther von Hagens himself for advice—he might not only be able to advise on the legal aspects, but perhaps also as an official go-between and be able to perform the actual plastination. (I don’t know about the costs…perhaps he’d let you ameliorate the expenses by lending out the testicles for display on the next Body Worlds tour, or some such.
Greetings MistressEviscia and welcome to the Straight Dope message board!
IANAL, but…
It seems that MistressEviscia is asking for legal advice. Laws vary by state and even locality. So it probably would be best to consult with a lawyer outside of a message board setting.