Shard

11mo ago

This company sells real human skulls. It claims all of its skulls are ethically sourced. How do you ethically source a human skull for sale to a random buyer?

Jump

Doesn't matter. Onus is on them to prove its ethically sourced and they fail miserably at that.

Nowhere on their website does it detail they have any sort of processes to ensure the skulls are sourced ethically. It doesn't seem like any skulls are traceable or that any consent was given for the skulls to be sold commercially.

In fact this statement from their president seems to indicate what OP is saying is accurate.

All natural bone specimens are legally and ethically obtained. Suppliers World Wide send skulls that would otherwise be discarded or destroyed, as they are collected.

11mo ago

This company sells real human skulls. It claims all of its skulls are ethically sourced. How do you ethically source a human skull for sale to a random buyer?

Jump

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.

11mo ago

This company sells real human skulls. It claims all of its skulls are ethically sourced. How do you ethically source a human skull for sale to a random buyer?

Jump

Fine, the dead are dead and don't have rights.

But what about the living relatives and descendants do they have rights?

Dead person or dead person's family donates his body to science. This is usually done under the agreement that when whatever organization is done sciencing with it, it will be respectfully disposed off(cremated or buried) or returned to the next of kin. It is not usually left to the whims of the organization to sell it like scrap parts.

Without traceability for each and every skull there is no assurance that this was done ethically. There are just so many hypothetical scenarios in which this could affect the rights of next of kin. If its not traceable, its not ethical.

11mo ago

This company sells real human skulls. It claims all of its skulls are ethically sourced. How do you ethically source a human skull for sale to a random buyer?

Jump

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.