{"id":105453,"date":"2026-07-20T00:23:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/?p=105453"},"modified":"2026-07-20T00:23:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:23:59","slug":"many-universities-hold-seized-human-remains-what-should-they-do-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adviews.info\/news\/?p=105453","title":{"rendered":"Many\u00a0universities hold seized human remains. What should they do with them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cShock and awe.\u201d That was Fatimah Jackson\u2019s reaction when police dropped a makeshift bomb onto a residential building in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. The brick-faced row house was the communal home of MOVE, an organization that advocated for Black liberation, natural\u00a0living\u00a0and animal rights. After a daylong standoff and shootout, during which MOVE members refused to leave the building, the\u00a0city\u2019s\u00a0mayor gave police\u00a0the go-ahead\u00a0to drop an explosive device. In the ensuing inferno, 61 houses burned to the ground\u2009\u2014\u2009and six adults and five children were killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Biological anthropologist Fatimah Jackson is setting new standards for the ethical use of human remains.<\/span>Courtesy of Howard Univ.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The consequences of that day are still playing out. In 2021, local journalists reported that the University of Pennsylvania had been keeping human\u00a0remains\u00a0from the bombing\u2009\u2014\u2009tentatively identified as 14-year-old Katricia \u201cTree\u201d Africa and 12-year-old Delisha Africa\u2009\u2014\u2009in a cardboard box on a shelf, without their relatives\u2019 knowledge or consent. The remains, originally entrusted to the school by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, had also been used as teaching materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the remains of Delisha and Tree have since been returned to their families\u2009\u2014\u2009and the school and city apologized\u2009\u2014\u2009the MOVE incident is one example in a long line of researchers keeping human remains without consent, says Jackson, a biological anthropologist who retired in 2024 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. \u201cWe\u2019re the ones who are holding this material,\u201d she says. \u201cThe scientists are the culprits here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n