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There was an incident maybe 30 years ago where a medical school employee went into New York (I think it was) to pick up a batch of human heads to be used for teaching purposes. He left the box in his car while taking care of another errand, and it was stolen.

The box was found sitting on the sidewalk a few blocks away, with the heads still in it.

One can only imagine what went through the thief's mind when he opened his "prize".



Regardless of the thief, it does seem a little concerning that the chain of custody for actual human heads involves being left unattended in a random employee's car.


The world is not nearly as tightly controlled as one might think. Lots of stuff is just some normal person's job to not lose track of.

Body parts are only super custody tracked when they are still viable lifesaving tools (ie organ transplant). Besides that they aren't a huge deal.



Once they've been relegated to the heap of experimentation they really don't need to be controlled that much. Oddly I would feel in some way violated if a loved one of mine had died and his/her head were in that box, but if it happened to my own head I would pay it no mind.


There was a news splash several years ago about a body donation intended for Alzheimer's research which was used for military explosives testing: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-body...


Now that is something I would sign on for


A lab I worked in while I was in college had a freezer with a bunch of human heads in it. pretty creepy.


Why? They aren’t going to escape.


Well, they clearly did that one time.


I don't know, I wouldn't expect heads to be a popular target of thievery.




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