4 - Ethical Considerations for Human Remains

Summary

Working with human remains raises a host of ethical issues. This chapter explores whether there is a universal ethical approach to human remains or whether this idea is so general as to be little more than a broad statement. The chapter also provides a more general introduction to ethics. It is essential to have a good understanding of what this discipline actually means if curators and researchers are to act in truly ethical ways. In the literature discussing human remains there are only a few examples where general ethical principles are addressed. Most gloss over this aspect as if this understanding is a given. It is not. Many people, both involved in working with remains or not, have at best a sketchy understanding of ethics, yet we as academics and museum professionals are expected to draw up ethical codes and statements, which if they are to be more than a box-ticking exercise must be based on a firm understanding of the issues.