Summary
Overview
Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the fascinating legal and ethical questions surrounding body part ownership, from amputated limbs to baby teeth. They examine what happens to body parts after amputation, death, and throughout history, revealing surprising laws about cremation restrictions, the body snatching trade, and famous cases like Einstein's stolen brain. The discussion ranges from eating your own flesh to creating drinking goblets from skulls, while uncovering the fundamental legal principle that corpses cannot be property.
Baby Teeth, Body Parts, and Family Keepsakes
The hosts begin by discussing the common practice of keeping children's teeth and other body parts as keepsakes. Michael reveals his mother still has all his baby teeth, while Hannah admits to keeping her daughters' teeth mixed together. They explore various examples of preserved body parts, including umbilical cords, hair from first haircuts, and even Michael's bag of beard hair kept as a color sample before it turns gray.
- Michael's mother keeps all his baby teeth in a container in her kitchen cabinet
- Hannah has kept all her daughters' teeth but isn't sure which belongs to whom
- Michael kept a bandage from his cat because the blood stain formed a perfect heart shape
- Michael maintains a bag of his beard hair as a sample from before it turned gray
" I once shaved my beard off for charity, and there was way more beard hair than we could in good conscience give a person so I kept the rest of it because my beard won't be this color forever it's turning gray so I should keep some samples from before it turned gray and I've just got a little ziploc bag of it pinned onto my pegboard as a memory "
What Happens to Amputated Limbs: The Legal Framework
The discussion turns to what legally happens to amputated body parts. In the UK, the Human Tissue Authority regulates these matters, allowing individuals to keep amputated limbs provided they don't pose a public health risk. The hosts explore the creative example of Christy Loyal from Oklahoma, who had her cancer-amputated leg stripped by flesh-eating beetles and turned into an articulated skeleton that she poses for humorous Instagram photos.
- You can legally keep amputated limbs in the UK as long as they don't pose a public health risk
- Amputated limbs can be left at hospitals for incineration with other medical tissue
- Christy Loyal used flesh-eating beetles to strip her amputated leg down to bones for display
- Studies suggest having control over what happens to your limb helps with the grieving process
- There is now a dedicated burial site for amputated limbs in the UK
" I'd really want to show it respect. It was my arm. It did a good job. It didn't do anything bad against me. It let me control it forever. "
" When you're walking around in life and you say oh my damn knees they're really annoying and then after you die your knees are there testifying against you saying look at all of those stairs I carried her up look at her baby who I helped her carry and then she spent the rest of her life slagging me off "
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