4 - The Impact and Effectiveness of the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums in England

Summary

Introduction

This chapter provides a broad overview of the impact and effectiveness that the Human Tissue Act 2004 (HTAct) and the Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums (Guidance) (DCMS 2005) have had on museums in England (White 2011). Woodhead has discussed the origin and status of both the HTAct and the Guidance in Chapter 3; thus it will not be examined in depth here. suffice to say that the HTAct is a law drafted chiefly for application in the medical sector, although it does have potentially far-reaching consequences for a limited number of museums: first because section 47 of the HTAct gave nine national museums the power to de-accession human remains less than 1000 years old from their collections, an action previously prohibited by legislation; and secondly because section 13 of the HTAct legislated for the establishment of the Human Tissue Authority (HTAuth), whose aim is to regulate various activities involving human remains, including the storage and public display of human remains less than 100 years old (Human Tissue Authority 2005).

Conversely, the Department of Culture, Media and sport drafted the Guidance in response to ongoing concerns relating to the repatriation of Australian/Tasmanian and other non-United Kingdom (UK) human remains (Heywood 2000; Fforde 2004). Although the main impetus behind the Guidance may have been the repatriation of overseas human remains, it was drafted as a set of best practice principles relating more generally to the treatment of human remains of any origin.