At what point does a body stop being a the remains of a person, to be treated with respect, and become an artefact for display in a museum?

[ProudNeathGirl]

I met the man who led the dig to find Richard III today and it got me thinking.
How long after death is it OK to dig up a skeleton for research, and possible display in a museum?
I'd hate to think that in a thousand years from now I'd be lying in a glass case somewhere.
I always feel sorry for people who's skeletons are dug up from wherever they were lovingly buried so that archeologists can poke them about in a lab.

[THETrills]

Is it not possible to display a body in a museum in a respectful manner?

[BloooCowWonders]

I feel just the opposite! Id love to be dug up a few hundred years after I'm buried - they'd be able to say yes, she lived a full life, had x children, could have looked after her teeth a but better etc! It's just a body - not ME at all. That's why I'm not going to be cremated.

[THETrills]

If I'm dead I really won't care if I am being used for educational or research purposes or if I'm lying in the ground.

[THETrills]

Then again my plan is to (depending on how I die) have all the useful bits donated to someone who can make use of them.

[edam]

I'm not sure how useful my bits will be, given I have a medical condition and smoke. Hopefully I'd have given up smoking decades before I die so maybe my lungs will be OK...

[Japple]

Father used to take me to the Smithsonian when I was a young girl.Dead people
and body parts in jars,everywhere.I also learned that my own people were ware
Housed there.That made me angry,as I know how sacred their buriels are.I'm
not certain if our "Sandcreek Massacre" children,men and women are displayed
There,I hope not.Smithsonian had their poor bodies for awhile.I am against
disturbing the departed.A Pox on the heads of of those who dessacrate and
Display these once-loved people.

[chibi]

it is ok if they aren't white, and/oor european. then it is archaeology.

if they are white, and/or european, it is grave robbing or desecration

Hth

[SparklyGothKat]

My ds1 has requested that his body to donated to cerebral palsy research. My body will be just a body and they can do what they like after I'm dead.

[edam]

Chibi's got a point about the past, though I'd hope that doesn't apply today. But in the 'it's OK to display them in public' bracket it's not just ethnic minorities or foreigners - it's also anyone considered 'lesser' by scientists or doctors in those days, including the disabled or poor.

[WilfSell]

In an ideal world, I'd say that point is 'when the person has meaningfully consented' and I do generally believe that ones body should remain determined by decisions the living person made over it, even in death. But there are cases where that is just not possible, so relatives, ancestors, ethnic community etc should have a say. Though chibi's point is a bit direct, she/he does have a point, and decisions should be culturally sensitive. In the West, where we don't have much of a notion of 'ancestors' only an individual 'soul' idea, then the decision is much more individualised...

I think the von Hagens stuff is much more alarming though than digging up archaeology. Even though they have alleged to have consented (what - the horse? the foetus? the families?). I'm still not convinced they are real bodies actually and he's made a shedload of money from a big RUSE...

[edam]

Yes, his stuff is disturbing and I'd like to know more about what the subjects actually consented to.

[chibi]

there have been cases of nations petitioning to have the bones of ancestors returned to them, only to be refused becaused the bones are of scientific interest.

gross.

[Xenia]

In my view you are either an atheist in which case as the person if not there it matters not a jot what are done to the bones the day after death evern or you believe in God in which case the soul has left the body and God couldn;t care less what you did with the remains.

[chibi]

if it really doesn't matter what happens to bodies after death, why have laws requiring consent for organ donation then (or opt out clauses)? why have any rules about where human remains can be disposed of? i don't know any cultures that agree with you xenia.

[MrsCampbellBlack]

There was an interesting programme about this on r4 last week here that touches on this subject towards the end.

[ProudNeathGirl]

IMO - it's not so much what I want for my own body after death, or for the bodies of my family. I'm not particularly religious and wouldn't mind being used for research. But in cases where skeletons have been taken out of what are obviously lovingly prepared graves, where they were supposed to lie for all eternity - I think they should be left where they were.

[Sparklingbrook]

For me, it's the thought that people are lovingly arranged in their coffins, sometimes in their favourite oufit, and with letters and messages, teddies and other personal things. They have a ceremony. The thought that they may be dug up at some point for whatever reasons doesn't seem right.

[CachuHwch]

Interesting thread.

I think that bodies in museums are shown far more respect than bodies in a cemetary, personally. Seeing a skeleton in a glass box makes you wonder about that person: the life they lead, what character they had. In a cemetary, you can have hundreds of gravestones: You don't have that personal connection with every single person laid to rest there.
I have seen the Red Lady of Paviland Cave (who was actually a man!) in The National Museum of Wales a few times now, and it always has someone leaning over it, wondering about that person.
I would be very touched if I could have that amount of respect, centuries after my death.

Appreciate everyone is different, though. I wonder if religion has a lot to do with how people feel about this?

[Japple]

...Now,"Sparkle". You're one with some Respect for others.I like that.

[Sparklingbrook]

I don't want to be in a glass box.