The Edinburgh Body Snatchers from Cautionary Tales
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Deep Dive
Why did William Burke and William Hare start selling bodies?
They saw a business opportunity due to the shortage of cadavers for medical students in Edinburgh.
What was the legal status of selling human bodies in 1820s Edinburgh?
Selling bodies was not illegal as human bodies were not considered property that could be owned or stolen.
Why did Dr. Knox's assistant insist on removing the nightshirt from the body?
The nightshirt legally belonged to someone, and Dr. Knox could get in trouble for buying it.
What was the main source of cadavers before Burke and Hare?
Grave robbers or resurrectionists who dug up recently buried corpses.
Why did the authorities mostly look the other way regarding grave robbing?
They didn't want to disrupt the medical schools, which needed bodies for study.
What proposal did the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh make to address the cadaver shortage?
Create a legal, regulated market where living people could sell the right to use their body after death.
Why did Burke and Hare eventually get caught?
They murdered a well-known local figure, Daft Jamie, whose disappearance couldn't be ignored.
What was the Anatomy Act of 1832 intended to do?
It gave medical schools the right to take bodies from workhouses, prisons, or hospitals if unclaimed within 48 hours of death.
Why did Alvin Roth propose kidney exchanges instead of legalizing kidney sales?
To avoid the repugnance associated with selling organs while still increasing the supply of kidneys for transplant.
How did Dr. Knox react to the public outrage after the Burke and Hare scandal?
He ignored the protesters and continued his lectures, emphasizing the importance of cadavers for medical education.
- Edinburgh was a center for anatomical study with a shortage of cadavers.
- Burke and Hare exploited this shortage by supplying bodies, initially through natural deaths, but later through murder.
- The legal system at the time did not consider human bodies as property, thus not illegal to sell.
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