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Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(107,085 posts)
Sun Oct 10, 2021, 02:27 PM Oct 2021

A TikTok bone salesman's wall of spines reignites ethical debate over selling human remains

Human skulls line his shelves. Spines hang on a wall in his showroom, more than 100 backbones from unknown people gathered in perpetual show. They all but certainly never knew one another.

Jon Pichaya Ferry, known on TikTok as JonsBones, is a 21-year-old bone salesman. Ferry’s account, where he has garnered nearly 500,000 followers and 22 million likes, features videos where he cheerily answers viewers’ questions on what many see as a macabre field. He also displays his rarest finds, including the skulls of fetuses and toddlers. His cat, Chonk, makes frequent appearances, and fans can even buy JonsBones merchandise.

The reach TikTok has afforded Ferry — introducing the bones trade to a whole new audience of younger people — has also invited sharp backlash to his business and its moral implications. Other TikTok users have made videos questioning the legality and ethics of the human remains trade, which Ferry maintains he participates in for educational purposes.

Experts say buyers of human bones often do not look at them as educational tools; instead the bones are sometimes turned into jewelry, chandeliers

The last several years have seen a larger reckoning around the bones trade, as museums have begun announcing where the skeletons in their collections came from.

“The poorer you are, the more powerless you are, the further down the pecking order you are, the greater the likelihood that it’s your people that can end up being collected like this,” said Shawn Graham, a professor of digital humanities at Carleton University in Canada.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/10/09/tiktok-jonsbones-human-remains-wall-spines/

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A TikTok bone salesman's wall of spines reignites ethical debate over selling human remains (Original Post) Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Oct 2021 OP
If my family can sell my bones after I'm dead, I don't really care. SWMO_8541 Oct 2021 #1
Agree. Nt happybird Oct 2021 #3
That's pretty cool madville Oct 2021 #2
Ethically fraught Hekate Oct 2021 #4
Geronimo's skull? keithbvadu2 Oct 2021 #5
I would be willing to bet there isn't one... S/V Loner Oct 2021 #6
My thought exactly RainCaster Oct 2021 #8
JFC CurtEastPoint Oct 2021 #7
Where does he get his stock? Retrograde Oct 2021 #9
There are 27 bones in the human hand. multigraincracker Oct 2021 #10
LMAO. DEbluedude Oct 2021 #11
 

SWMO_8541

(34 posts)
1. If my family can sell my bones after I'm dead, I don't really care.
Sun Oct 10, 2021, 02:30 PM
Oct 2021

The body is nothing but an empty shell once the person is dead.
Personally, I don’t see this as a big deal.

madville

(7,397 posts)
2. That's pretty cool
Sun Oct 10, 2021, 02:35 PM
Oct 2021

As long as he’s obtaining them legally, I think it’s kinda neat, like Halloween decorations year round lol.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
4. Ethically fraught
Sun Oct 10, 2021, 02:39 PM
Oct 2021

“The poorer you are, the more powerless you are, the further down the pecking order you are, the greater the likelihood that it’s your people that can end up being collected like this,”

Retrograde

(10,070 posts)
9. Where does he get his stock?
Sun Oct 10, 2021, 04:31 PM
Oct 2021

Leftovers from medical schools? People whose relatives sold their body parts after their deaths? (Is that even legal in the US?) Ancient bones imported from ossuaries in Europe? (Importing them might have some legal issues as well)

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