
Will an 18th-Century Giant Finally Get a Burial at Sea? - pepys
https://daily.jstor.org/will-an-18th-century-giant-finally-get-a-burial-at-sea
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dsfyu404ed
I don't see why this is such a big deal. The morals of the past are not the
same as the morals of the present which are not the same as the morals of the
future. Marginalizing something like this is a disservice because it is as
much noteworthy for how it highlights the changing ethics of medicine as it is
for any other reason.

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
Byrne has been dead for 200 years. The reason he wanted to be buried at sea,
was so he would not be dissected. That ship has sailed long ago. There is also
no one alive that knew Byrne personally.

Thus, the only reason to bury Byrne at sea according to his wishes is to feel
good about ourselves and to revel in our superiority over the unethical people
of the past. In addition, burying the bones at sea, would also bury the story
of Byrne in a large way.

The better thing to do is to continue displaying the bones but with a
prominent plaque that tells his story and how easy it is for people who think
they are doing good for humanity in general (and Hunter certainly thought so)
to do very bad things to actual humans. That is a lesson that will need
repeating for a long time.

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jonathankoren
Flip this around. What's the reason for keeping him displayed against his
wishes? Because, that's what what we're already doing? Just because something
was done for a long time isn't a reason to keep doing it. The question is if
the reasons for doing it in the past are still relevant today.

Let's be honest here. He was stolen, boiled and stuck in a box. Then shown off
for arguably educational purposes. But whatever scientific benefit the bones
had is long since exhausted as the a DNA sample was already taken. The benefit
for public viewing could easily be accomplished by a plastic model.

So why shouldn't he be buried at sea? Why should we not correct obvious
wrongs? What benefit does it serve? To show that people can do bad things with
impunity? That we don't care? If the whole point of keeping his skeleton is to
stick a plaque on it, why not just put up the plaque? What's the point of the
skeleton at all?

