To ask for your help disposing of a skeleton?

[Madders45]

I have a skeleton that I acquired when I was studying medicine in the early 80s. Back then it was compulsory to have one.

It’s not a whole skeleton - it’s the skull, spine, pelvic bone + one side of the body. So only one arm and one leg.

It’s now been in my attic for decades, as I’ve never known what to do with it really.

Dh and I have recently retired and are emigrating - I obviously have to dispose of it somehow.

I tried to persuade my daughter to put it in her loft, but she thinks it’s too ‘creepy’.

So I’ve tried googling how to dispose of it - one website said that under the new Health Tissue Act the best thing to do is to offer it to a licensed medical school. I’ve emailed my alma mater and a few other local unis, but they’ve either not replied or declined it.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Freegle? If it's a spine would a chiropractor want it for display?

It is an actual Human Skelton or just a model?
Maybe ask religious community eg church if they will bury it.

i know this doesnt help you at all but i cant help thinking........was ther not a thread on here about someone who had a skeleton out in their house and kept changing its positions and dressed it according to the seasons ect.....

I'm so jealous! Please tell me you live near me?

Freegle

From what I’ve read of the new Human Tissue Act, I don’t think it’s legal to give away human remains to anything other than a licensed medical institution.

Presuming it is real, not plastic?
Local HE colleges/secondary/private schools that do biology/health care studies?
Ask your local vicar/LABereavement services if they could be buried somewhere.
Local museum?

Donate it to a medical school at a University? Or any healthcare studies dept - physio, nursing, osteopathy. Incidentally they are ludicrously expensive to buy (friend who was physio student needed one) so you might think about selling it.

And it’s a real skeleton. I have no idea of the person’s identity - we weren’t given that information. I just know that it’s a male who died around the age of 60.

Ihopeyouwitchesareready

There was, it was bloody brilliant!

And that should say Human Tissue Act in the first post, not Health Tissue Act -sorry!

I came here to suggest under the patio
I'll get me coat.

I’ll have it xx

I'd be interested if you're willing to sell!

Bury it in the garden, or under your patio.

Leave it there, sat upright in a rocking chair?

Oh dear. You're going to have to buy him a seat on the plane I think!

Try these people, they seem to sell them so might buy them too. Prices are eye watering! I presume yours is allowed as an antique as it was legal when bought.

www.thecabinetofcuriosities.co.uk/collections/human-bones

In schools such things are disposed of by the local council, you could try ringing them to ask? We have cupboards of all sorts of remains at school and they took them away (who knows what they did with them!). If it’s real or may be is has to be buried depending where it came from. When I worked in medical research all remains had to be disposed of in a dignified way. But I don’t know what the time limit is.

I did consider asking if a local church could bury the skeleton.

My only issue is that, while I don’t know where the man whose skeleton I have came from, I have read that a large number of them were from India - so he probably wasn’t a Christian?

I would love to sell it, and should have done so years ago really, but I think it’s no longer legal to do so?

It seems that there’s now very strict legislation in place concerning the handling of human remains.

Back seat of your car???

Having looked at that website the local authority collecting specimens for schools
Could be making a fortune

I'd contact a university with a forensic anthropology department rather than a medical school.

How old is the skeleton? Not the person's age, the actual skeleton? And do you have any paperwork? The HTA website can be a little opaque...

Call up nearest university with medical school and ask what they would do/if they will take it.