But he pointed to policies he lists on his website that instructed buyers to "treat these bones with as much respect as possible. Selling human remains is legal in the United States, with restrictions. The practice is banned on Facebook, Instagram and eBay, but under current federal law, you can legally own, sell or distribute human remains, unless the remains are of Native Americans.
The legal uncertainty allows those who engage in selling bones to continue operating," Marsh said. Ferry said he does not ship bones to Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana or outside of the United States, where there are limitations or bans on the sale of human remains.
Marsh notes that since the debate has picked up attention in recent months she would not be surprised "if some states take another look at enacting statutes prohibiting the sale of human remains. Editor's note: This report has been corrected from its original version based on additional comments from JonsBones.
Pastrana had ceased to be regarded as human; her corpse had become a possession. So where do skulls on bookcases come from? In the United States, no federal law prevents owning, buying, or selling human remains, unless the remains are Native American.
At least 38 states have laws that should prevent the sale of human remains, but in reality the laws are vague, confusing, and enforced at random. Many skulls for private sale have questionable origins, sourced from the thriving bone trades in India and China. Read: Why dodo bones are extra scarce. For the most part, skeletonization happens only when a body is donated to scientific research. The human bone trade is as close as the phone in your pocket or the laptop on your desk. There are some stipulations.
And therein lies the troubling nature of the casual, open trade in human bones going on every day. Bone gathering has become a subculture status symbol. Private collector Ryan Matthew Cohn boasts more than two hundred human skulls in his personal collection, no doubt adding to the required mystique for his duties as the host of the Science Channel show Oddities.
Artist Zane Wylie has also made a name for himself by purchasing and artistically modifying real human skulls. People going for a Tim Burton—esque aesthetic or wanting to gain some goth cred can easily acquire and display human remains to set the appropriately macabre mood, with exotic, old, or unusual skeletons being the most desirable status symbols of all.
Bone traders started to get nervous. Some deleted their Instagram accounts featuring human remains. Some canceled their interviews with National Geographic. The Bone Room , a store selling bones of all types, sent a note in their August newsletter saying that they consider the eBay ban worrisome. In the s, medical schools had to provide skeletons for their students, and the supply largely came from India.
Hindered by changing laws in that put an end to unchecked grave robbing in the U. Soon, India had a thriving bone industry that supplied much of the Western world with medical specimens. The history, the opportunity for entrepreneurship, and the fact that many families were too poor to cremate their loved ones helped India dominate the human bone niche. But in , one dealer was caught selling more than 1, child skeletons of unknown origin. India promptly banned exporting human remains over concern that people were being murdered for them.
Over time, as various medical schools closed or downsized, or as professors sold off their collections at estate sales, the bones changed hands, and some ended up on the oddities market. People in the medical world and related fields can still get new human skulls from U. Find out how modern body donation is saving lives.
Skulls Unlimited is the only company in the U. When they receive a donor head, they cut off as much meat as they can, and remove the brains with a special tool. Then the cleaning crew dries the skulls for a few days before putting them in a colony of dermestid beetles, which will eat off the rest of the fleshy bits. The company will only sell donor skulls to bona fide doctors, nurses, dentists, anthropologists, and people with valid scientific or medical reasons to have them.
However, they sell antique skulls to anyone who wants them. Facebook declined to be interviewed for this article.
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