No, I don’t want to buy one. This came out of a discussion about my brother, who is so much weirder than me if you can believe it, who owns a real human skull.

I don’t know how he got it. I don’t know where he got it from, maybe this company, more importantly, I don’t know why he would want such a thing. He is not a scientist, he works in IT. He did get an MFA in theater, wanted to be a professional theater director and loves Shakespeare, I can’t believe the reason was because he wanted Hamlet to be super authentic.

We’re not all that close, so it really hasn’t come up in conversation. I only know about it because he posted elsewhere a while back that he was on a Zoom meeting at work and he showed it off and couldn’t understand why everyone stopped laughing and got silent. So obviously he thinks it’s cool to own it.

It used to be a person. I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in an afterlife, but that’s just basic disrespect.

Anyway… how can you ethically source a skull and then sell it on the open market?

  • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Anyway… how can you ethically source a skull and then sell it on the open market?

    You pay an intern in your marketing department to write “ethically sourced” on all your customer facing surfaces.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      That’s my concern here. Like how would they know if this isn’t similar to China harvesting organs from executed prisoners?

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      In theory? It’s all about traceability and consent, preferably with a third party auditing system. A good skull salesman should be able to provide you with documentation of the origin of your skull and the consent obtained, as well as a contact at their third-party auditing firm. if the skull is fair trade, they should also be able to provide evidence that they are paying above market rates for their skull harvesters.

      • Ogmios@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Thank you kind sir and/or madame for providing a great deal more education on the human skull trade than I had ever intended to pursue!

  • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    I used to teach anatomy 20+ years ago. Sadly many of the skulls are sourced from the poorest people in impoverished countries. Companies pay a death benefit to the families or to the individual and then “harvest” the skull after death. They used to be priced based on the number of teeth and the presence of mandibular/maxillary degeneration. The highest priced skulls would come from donors and would have all their teeth.

    Here’s a link to the UCLA scandal if you want to get a feeling for how scummy the entire industry is

  • TheRedSpade@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    John Oliver had an episode where the main story answers your question.

    Basically, if you donate your body “to science” there’s a chance it could end up with such a company. I wouldn’t call it ethical, but as of now it’s legal.

  • Shard@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    They only really say their skulls are legally obtained. i.e. it wasn’t stolen and no one was murdered for it.

    We are committed to ethical sourcing. We follow all relevant laws and regulations to ensure that our specimens are obtained legally and responsibly.

    Likely many of these are discarded donations to science, legally purchased from the organization doing the “discarding”. It absolutely does not follow that it was ethically sourced.

    Unless you have traceability of each and every skull and a proof of informed consent (from the person whose skull it was, saying that they donate it for sale)for each skull there is no way to properly claim it was done ethically.

  • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    I’ve always wanted a human skull. I collect oddities, and it is a holy grail item for me. I have told my wife that I want my hand and skull handled by a master articulator that I know, so that I might live on as an occult tool.

    My skull would be an ethically sourced skull whenever somebody buys me. Freaks like me are out there. And we give bomb head.

    • 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Same same same. I would love to have one, and I would absolutely be down to have mine preserved.

      Also I study CS which is funny considering the “he works in IT” from the OP

  • andyburke@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    I consider myself to be my consciousness. When I die, I am gone. I have no emotional attachment to the body my consciousness existed in. I am an organ donor. I’d prefer my body go to help people, but if parts of it don’t - I have no possible way to care.

    I am probably not the only person who feels roughly like this. Seems plausible to me that you could ethically source human skulls. 🤷‍♂️

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I want someone to drink mead out of my skull after I die and absorb my power. This is my fondest wish.

    • lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Honestly, yeah. I spent decades developing and maintaining it, hopefully will spend a few more decades with it, but after that? I have no use for it anymore, but if it’s still in decent condition, it would be a shame to waste it.

      I’d rather have it be of some use to someone, and “drink mead out of it” is very high up the list, right after “use it for science or education” and right before “use it for semi-realistic (but doubly awesome) historical weapon tests or demos”. Other contenders are “deco piece”, “movie/theatre prop” and “ritual implement”.

      Actually, that probably applies to most of my body. Reuse or repurpose as much as you can, turn the rest into fertiliser.

       

      Failing that (if my spouse or family can’t stand the thought of cremating my remains, I don’t want to force them), at least bury me with some weapons. Not because I believe in Valhalla, I just want to troll some future archaeologist. Bonus points for mixing eras and qualities, e.g. a wallhanger 1700s cavalry sabre, weapons-grade Xiphos and a non-functional gun reproduction, dressed in a 900s Samurai armour.

  • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Look, if someone cut me a cheque right now, for payment of my bones when I’m done with them I’d take it in an instant.

    That’s not what’s happening here, those are likely bodies that didn’t meet the grade for medical/scientific use so they were sold off, which is gross and shitty.

    However, bidding on my meat carcass starts at $5000.

  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You could collect skulls after informed consent. People could potentially sell/donate the rights to their skull after they’re done using it, with maybe some permission from next-of-kin, since they have a certain degree of claim as well.

    If everyone agrees though, you could then ethically take that skull and sell it to a third party I suppose. It’d be somewhat similar mechanically to using remains for medical education and/or research, except without the noble cause or broader societal benefit.

    Otherwise, in my eyes, this would qualify as grave-robbing and definitely be frowned upon. Nonetheless a fairly common practice throughout history though.

    • Juergen@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      I think informed consent is key - and I know I would give mine for the right sum, unless a family member called first dibs. I am planning to be cremated and a few ounces of ashes more or less won’t make a difference.

      I can hardly see any other way to obtain a human skull ethically. If the seller is honest, they should make the signed consent form available to the buyer upon request.

      • Shard@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Herein lies the problem. Nowhere on their website can you find any details about informed consent or traceability. All you have are the words “ethically” peppered around the website without any definition as to what they mean by ethically nor any of their processes they use to ensure “ethicalness” of any of their skulls.

    • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      My partner and I have a large collection of dead things in and out of jars. If they wanted to live after I was dead, 100% chance they get my skull.

  • glitchdx@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “that sounds awesome, I’d totally buy one!” i thought before looking at the price tags. I think I’ll stick with plastic.

  • folekaule@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    John Oliver did a show related to this. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of restrictions on what can happen to your body once it has been donated.

    • moistclump@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Thank you yes! I think going into that piece I leaned towards the “dead is dead” philosophy but I think John Oliver changed my mind when he talked about the importance of dignity and ethical sourcing.