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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask for your help disposing of a skeleton?

235 replies

Madders45 · 08/01/2019 18:53

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?

OP posts:

Rudgie47 · 08/01/2019 20:27

Bury it in the garden, you can bury a body in your own garden so I cant see a problem with a skeleton.

covetingthepreciousthings · 08/01/2019 20:29

My friend who was a medical student had something worse, but I don’t want to say unless it offends anyone.

Now I feel you need to... go on.

AnotherOriginalUsername · 08/01/2019 20:29

I've always wanted to donate my skeleton to a university/college. Seems like this would no longer be possible

Have a look on the human tissue authority website. You'd likely have to donate your whole body but you can do so for research or anatomical examination assuming you die without requiring post mortem.

I will be donating my body for anatomical examination if I die in suitable circumstances as I was an anatomy student and couldn't have had my university education without people having generously donating their bodies.

Hazardswan · 08/01/2019 20:32

Dobby all knowledge is power please share.

DobbyTheHouseElk · 08/01/2019 20:33

AnotherOriginalUsername has said what it was. Generous people donate their bodies for students.

soulrider · 08/01/2019 20:34

I have similar reasons. More specifically I wanted to be a skeleton for somewhere as that way i'd be looked after for longer!

My dentistry friends had to have full sets of teeth, I'm more squeamish about that than whole bodies for some reason.

DobbyTheHouseElk · 08/01/2019 20:35

Sorry if it was a anticlimax! But when we had actual skeletons my friend was cutting up a real body. Fascinating. I asked if it upset her at all, she said no. Because of the way it’s preserved it doesn’t look real. Until she said, you see the eyelashes, that was what got her in the end.

MsMightyTitanAndHerTroubadours · 08/01/2019 20:36

it's quite difficult to donate your remains to medical science, I looked it up.

Lots of caveats and exemptions, and it's no good dying at the weekend!

I'd love a skeleton I would even dust it and make it part of the family.

Kethy · 08/01/2019 20:36

Bury it in the garden, you can bury a body in your own garden so I cant see a problem with a skeleton.
You'd still need a licence to do that. Otherwise at some point in the future
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/human-bones-belonging-to-small-child-discovered-under-driveway-in-purley-south-london-9264032.html the police will be digging up the garden

Honeyroar · 08/01/2019 20:36

Dobby do students actually take bodies home?? My mother is going to donate hers to medical science.

Don't you just keep your skeletons in a closet? (😬)

NormHonal · 08/01/2019 20:38

Contact your local Museum.

HippyChickMama · 08/01/2019 20:38

As well as universities you could try the education department of your nearest teaching hospital or A&E/trauma ward/theatre. We had a skeleton on a wheeled stand when I worked in A&E, very useful for hiding in dark corners on night shifts to scare colleagues teaching.

Azelma · 08/01/2019 20:40

@soulrider
I've always wanted to donate my skeleton to a university/college. Seems like this would no longer be possible.

Maybe not your skeleton, but you can still donate your body to medicine.

www.hta.gov.uk/donating-your-body

DobbyTheHouseElk · 08/01/2019 20:41

Oh no, it lived at the hospital. Or not lived (sorry). I think it may have stayed in a vat of preservative of some sort. They used it throughout the training.

CheshireChat · 08/01/2019 20:41

I really don't think the OP is being disrespectful seeing as she actually considered the probable religion of the person (probably of Indian origin ergo unlikely to be Christian).

This thread has been absolutely fascinating and horrifying actually. Horrifying simply because there's potential exploitation involved.

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 08/01/2019 20:46

People have been donating their bodies to medical science for decades, it’s not a new thing. I guess it’s up to them what they want done with their remains, not their family, upsetting though it may be. There’s a body farm in America where they leave them to naturally decompose in a variety of settings to study forensically. Fascinating but bloody gruesome.

ChakiraChakra · 08/01/2019 20:48

Contact your local Museum.

Don't do this without understanding the legal implications of it all first. Museums are duty-bound to report offers of human remains to somewhere. Sorry, can't remember any helpful details, only that people get annoyed when museums "report them to the authorities and cause then trouble" but it's only then don't their job.

ChakiraChakra · 08/01/2019 20:49

Sorry for typos ... It's only them doing their job.

Beeziekn33ze · 08/01/2019 20:50

Medical Defence Union may have useful advice.

PlatypusPie · 08/01/2019 20:51

There’s two full skeletons in the corner of the studio where I take an art class. One of our classmates is a retired doctor and has declared one plastic and one real ‘ just like the one I’ve got at home’ .

After the first suprise, you sort of don’t notice them - although the way someone had arranged them over the Xmas break, with hats, and apparently ready to waltz, was a bit startling.

My father had a skull in his study. No idea of the origin of that ( not a medic ) nor did it seem particularly odd at the time. It disappeared in a house move, I think, because I can’t remember it in his later years.

I know there was one in the biology lab in school - George.

There’s quite a lot of skeletons in my life ( and a few in my closet ..)

Murinae · 08/01/2019 20:51

I’m a hto (human tissue officer) for a medical school department. I know our med school had an Amnesty on human remains and asked the medics to bring any things they had lying around in the attic in. Maybe ring up your old med school and ask them.

DarkYearForMySoul · 08/01/2019 20:52

@Madders45 You may find Uni departments have similar issues with provenance. Have you tried posting on doctors.net? Or asking BMA? Sure there must have been otters in similar situations. BMA must have a person to head issues around ethics and human tissue (sorry if already suggested, didn’t read every post)

MamaLovesMango · 08/01/2019 20:55

I believe this is quite a common problem. My father had a skull. He was carrying it in a bag and the bag got snatched. So, his problem was resolved, or passed on....

Definitely contact the HTA. They’re the best people to advise.

halfwitpicker · 08/01/2019 20:55

Medical Defence Union

Do all these unions and organisations actually exist? Its all sounding a bit Potter - esque

Epiphany52 · 08/01/2019 20:56

Ask the local Church is they will bury it?

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