Nonsensically, a TikTok creator’s controversial collection of bones has the internet once again debating the morality of buying and selling human remains. The issue is oddly specific, but the discussion isn’t new — people on Tumblr were having the exact same conversation in 2015.
The Internet truly is a strange place.
In the U.S. there is no federal regulation on the ownership, sale, or possession of human osteology, so Jon Ferry’s bone-chilling collection is completely legal. Ferry admitted that many of the remains in his collection come from China, India, and Russia, and were likely that of very poor people, particularly of lower castes.
And perhaps most importantly, Ferry doesn’t work in osteology — he only distributes human remains to people who do. Does this moral quandary deserve all of the alarm it’s getting?
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