Skulls Unlimited is the only company in the United States that legally cleanses human minds directly from donors. When given a donor head, they cut as much meat as possible and remove the brains with a special tool. Then, the cleaning team dries the skulls for a few days before placing them in a colony of dermestes that eat the rest of the fleshy parts. New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Doughty, a funeral homemaker, wrote the following for The Atlantic about owning, buying, or selling bones: But now academics and legal professionals are beginning to realize this. It is illegal to import deer parts into Massachusetts if they come from a state where chronic wasting disease is common in deer, with the exception of deer antlers. But in 1985, a trafficker was caught selling more than 1,500 skeletons of children of unknown origin. India quickly banned the export of human remains for fear that people would be murdered for them. For a while, China took over India`s role as a global bone trader, but also banned exports in 2008. “It`s a grey area in the law because it`s not explicitly legal. Legal uncertainty allows those who sell bones to continue working,” Marsh said.
Instagram, more reminiscent of carefully framed selfies and a flood of tattoo art, may not seem like a likely hub for the human bone trade at first, but that has changed in recent years. This is partly because other popular websites and apps have attempted to ban the sale of human remains. Etsy, which focuses on craftsmanship, banned the sale of human bones in 2012. Similarly, eBay, which has been much more permissive, imposed a ban on all parts of the human body except hair in 2016. In this case, it was not so much by a new sense of virtue as a scientific report following the market of human skull auction sites. Christine Halling and Ryan Seidemann of the Louisiana Department of Justice followed the sale of 454 human skulls at the site and found that fifty-six of them were of “forensic or archaeological interest” and should not have been put up for sale. It wasn`t a surprise — in 2009, Seidemann and his colleagues brought back a Native American skull that had been offered on eBay and subsequently seized by the state of Louisiana — but the findings of the new newspaper were so strong that within a week, eBay changed its business policy and banned the sale of human bones. So the market has shifted to Instagram, where experts track how bones are mixed.
In all likelihood, you have just discovered an old medical skull! Until the mid-1980s, medical schools required students to buy real bones for their education, much like modern students buy textbooks. As a result, there was a plethora of companies popping up to meet the ever-increasing demand for skeletons. In the course of human existence, it has always been necessary to study human osteology. The top five bone suppliers of the 20th century were: Adam, Rouilly, Clay Adams, Somso, Carolina Biological Supply Company and Kilgore International. For nearly 100 years, these companies have supplied the majority of the skeletal remains you see on the market today. The company will only sell donor skulls to doctors, nurses, dentists, anthropologists and people with valid scientific or medical reasons. However, they sell antique skulls to anyone who wants them. Ferry lives in New York City, where he runs his online business. He said his clientele ranged from “chiropractors to universities to artists.” He said he also sells to search and rescue teams that train dogs to find missing people. Over time, when various medical schools were closed or scaled down, or professors sold their collections as part of real estate sales, the bones changed hands and some ended up on the curiosity market. Huffer and colleagues monitor website tags used by traders of human remains on Instagram and other social media sites.
He suggests other users do the same and report people who sell leftovers to Facebook and Instagram. That way, companies know it`s happening, even though currently none of these sites have anything in their terms of service or community standards limiting such sales. But he pointed to the guidelines he lists on his website that ask buyers to “treat these bones with as much respect as possible.” However, it seems foolish to make it illegal to possess bird feathers. I collected feathers when I was a child, and since I lived in the Canadian Rockies, I`m sure there were eagle, owl and hummingbird feathers mixed with duck feathers. I wouldn`t even know how to tell the difference between them. The Hudson Valley Post did some research and it looks like you can legally own human bones in New York City, with the exception of Native American bones. Georgia and Tennessee: In these states, you can own, buy, sell, and trade human remains in the state, but you cannot import or export parts inside or outside the state. That said, if you live in Georgia or Tennessee and want to buy a human skull, you`ll need to find one for sale in your state, and if you ever move out of state, you can`t legally take the skull with you.
Many skulls for private sale have dubious origins stemming from the burgeoning bone trade in India and China. Bones are usually kept by people who could not afford cremation or burial. To be clear, you can`t possess your own mother`s corpse, but if you`re willing to engage in a suspicious business on the internet, a femur from the other side of the world could end up in your home. Strange Biology also investigated the matter and, after interviewing many experts, wrote that there was no law in New York against owning human bones, except for Native American bones. Caitlin Doughty is the undertaker and author of the New York Times bestseller Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death. And it is precisely from this book that The Atlantic took this excerpt that it published Last Tear. The Bone Room, a website that sells human bones and customs, claims it can ship “real human bones” to New York. False. There are very few restrictions on the sale of non-indigenous human remains as long as they are not intended for transplantation.
And there are even exceptions (and exceptions to those exceptions). On Facebook alone, I`ve seen people selling human eyelashes, skin, amputated limbs, genitals, and, yes, many human fetuses in one jar. Do you have $800? I could get you a pretty decent human skull in almost any state. But even though the possession and trade of human bones is technically legal, it is possible that some remains have been stolen, stolen or misappropriated.