Lawmaker Urges Prohibition on Commercial Sales of Human Remains

A Member of Parliament has advocated for the cessation of the “depraved” practice involving the sale of human remains through auction houses and on social media platforms. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, representing the Labour party, stated that she had received reports of human remains often being auctioned while “disguised as modified items or replicas”. Addressing Members of Parliament, she detailed instances such as a “foetal skeleton posed under a glass dome, a human thigh bone turned into a cane, a human jawbone necklace and the varnished skull of a six-year-old”. Ribeiro-Addy, who serves as the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill in London, asserted that a legal loophole facilitates these sales and requested the deputy prime minister to pledge government action to halt the practice. During Prime Minister’s Questions, where she deputized for Sir Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner described the reported situations as “horrifying”. She noted that although the Human Tissue Authority regulates the display of human remains, “it does not cover sales or purchases”. The deputy prime minister committed to arranging a meeting with Ribeiro-Addy to address the matter. Ribeiro-Addy informed the BBC that the “commodification of human remains perpetuates a dark legacy of colonialism, exploitation and dehumanisation”. She emphasized, “We need to see decisive action to end such practices and respectfully repatriate stolen remains to their rightful resting places.” She affirmed her intention to persist in advocating for this issue, stating that “restitution is a key pillar of any programme of reparative justice”. In October, the BBC reported that an auction house located in Oxfordshire had been compelled to remove human and ancestral remains from a sale after receiving criticism from indigenous groups and museums. The items originally listed included shrunken heads originating from the Jivaro people of South America, skulls from the Ekoi people of West Africa, and a 19th-century horned human skull belonging to the Naga people of India and Myanmar. Laura Van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, expressed her “outraged” reaction to the auction and commended the choice to take the remains off sale. Ribeiro-Addy stated in the House of Commons that, in addition to auction houses, human remains are available for sale on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Ebay, Etsy, and Gumtree. She indicated that these remains were “often from indigenous communities in Africa and Asia stolen during colonial expeditions” and mentioned that the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) had informed her of these occurrences. BABAO considers the commercial sale of human remains to be “unethical” and has cautioned that social media platforms serve as “ideal hosts for a wide variety of illicit activity” concerning the trade of remains. The Human Tissue Act specifically prohibits “commercial dealings” of human tissue when related to medical transplantation, but not when sold as artefacts. Furthermore, the Act’s scope is limited to remains less than 100 years old, which excludes many historical remains. Nevertheless, a license is mandatory for the display of remains. BABAO points out that numerous “antique” skeletons are, in fact, less than 100 years old because the export of remains to medical schools persisted significantly into the 20th century, rendering their unlicensed display illegal. BABAO informed the BBC that the cases highlighted by Ribeiro-Addy “are all real cases reported to BABAO’s Trade and Sale of Human Remains Task Force over the past four years”. A BABAO spokesperson elaborated, stating, “For example, the thigh bone (femur) modified into a walking cane was observed by a member of the task force on a market stall, and the skull of the six-year-old child was recently presented as a prize in a raffle conducted on Instagram.” They added, “Many similar items are currently available for sale at online antiques auctions, online marketplaces and on social media.” The organization stated that its ultimate objective is to “ensure that the selling of human remains in the UK in this way is outlawed entirely”.