“Let me sink in the sea” Belatedly Known Belatedly, Ethical Controversy
British Museum decides to suspend skeleton exhibition Whether to store or store is undecided
The remains of a man who suffered from giant disease during his lifetime have escaped spectacle 240 years after his death.
The US Daily New York Times (NYT) said on the 21st (local time) that the Hunterian Museum in London, England, has decided not to open the 231cm giant skeleton, which was one of its most popular exhibits, to the public anymore. Introduced the story of ‘Giant’ Charles Byrne.
Byrne was born with acromegaly in what is now Northern Ireland in 1761.
Moving to London in 1781 at the age of 20, he introduced himself as an ‘Irish giant’ and showed his height to people to earn big money and become famous, but died in 1783 at the early age of 22.
Since Byrne was alive, many people have shown interest in securing his remains, and it is known that he asked people around him to give him a burial by putting his body in a heavy coffin and sinking it under the sea in case he died.
But this wish did not come true.
John Hunter, then an English surgeon and anatomist, paid 500 pounds to his friends to steal the body.
Soon after, Byrne’s skeleton began to be exhibited at Hunter’s residence in Leicester Square, London, and has become a representative collection of the Hunterian Museum, which is visited by 80,000 visitors a year to date.
However, as the will of the deceased became known belatedly, controversy arose over whether displaying the ashes against the will is ethically correct.
Recently, the Museum Trustees decided that Byrne’s remains will no longer be on display when the museum reopens in March after being closed for repairs for five years.
“What happened historically and Hunter’s actions were wrong,” said Dunn Kemp, director of the Royal College of Medicine (RCS), a higher institution of the Hunterian Museum.
However, it has not yet been confirmed how Hunter’s ashes will be disposed of.
Some argue that they should be returned to their hometown of Northern Ireland for burial.
Author Hilary Mantle, who wrote a novel about Byrne’s story, said, “With these bones, we got everything science could get,” and “it would be an honor to put him to rest.”
However, in the medical world, it is pointed out that it is necessary to preserve the remains in order to continue research on factors that affect giant disease, such as growth hormone and tumors.
“The research isn’t over yet,” said Martha Kobonitz, professor of endocrinology at Queen Mary University.
/yunhap news
