27699: (reply) Re: 27687; K White (info): Human bones in the U.S.

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Raber

I don't know if it's legal or not but I know of medical people who used to 
bring back skulls from Haiti.  There is man at the State Medical School who 
will boil bodies and sell you the skeleton.  Those bodies are the unclaimed 
bodies at the national morgue.  Many are legally given to the medical school 
but I doubt any paperwork is  ever involved.   The man in charge of taking care 
of the bodies dissected by students  will  also process entire skeletons for 
those same students or whomever wants a skeleton for study sessions.  10 years 
ago, when the exchange rate was 16 gourdes to a dollar, you could buy an entire 
rather fresh (the bones were not dessicated and had a darker coloration) 
skeleton in a box  for 1000 gourdes.  A skull only would go for 200 gourdes. 
The man would just go to his large supply of bodies, decapitate one, boil the 
head and remove the flesh.  Medical and other students in Haiti can tell you 
about seing the way the bodies are "processed" right on campus. Groups of 
students often go in together to buy a skeleton for anatomy class.  Some 
American medical workers would buy some through some Haitian students.   When 
they started X-raying all luggage coming from Haiti, American  medical people 
quit bringing skulls back.