Can You Legally Buy a Real Human Skeleton?

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  • čas přidán 10. 05. 2020
  • Where do medical school bones come from? I went undercover (not very well) in India to see if I could buy a real-death skeleton.
    Don't be a bonehead, take advantage of CuriosityStream's lockdown special at www.curiositystream.com/medlife and sign up with the code 'medlife' to get a YEAR of CuriosityStream AND Nebula for only $12! - THIS OFFER HAS NOW ENDED, IT'S NOW $20 FOR THE YEAR WHICH IS STILL AMAZING VALUE.
    -----------------
    More Medlife Crisis:
    www.medlifecrisis.co.uk
    / medcrisis
    / medlifecrisis
    / medcrisis
    Kolkata in India used to be centre of the worldwide trade in human skeletons and bones. In 1985 India outlawed the export of human specimens, but as I found out on a visit in 2019, the trade continues on a large scale. Here's my Sherlock Bones impersonation.
    References:
    The Red Market by Scott Carney www.scottcarney.com/the-red-m...
    blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2019/...
    www.thenational.ae/world/boom...
    Sanker Sen www.indiatoday.in/magazine/ec...
    Random scientific study on the truckloads of Indian bones www.sciencedirect.com/science...
    Kickstarter video by Scott Carney for a documentary that never happened www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
    Scandals in other countries
    Unlawful theft of human tissue in the US and Ukraine: • Skin and Bone: the Sha...
    www.nbcnews.com/id/13192080/ns...
    Alder Hey infant organ scandal (Liverpool, UK): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_H...
    Chinese organ removal:
    www.theguardian.com/world/201...
    nypost.com/2019/06/23/the-ugl...

Komentáře • 1K

  • @InvisibleTower
    @InvisibleTower Před 4 lety +1410

    "These are likely second hand skeletons" I'd imagine that most skeletons you see have already been used once

    • @OHYS
      @OHYS Před 3 lety +85

      Mine hasn't been used before. I am it's first owner

    • @DANGER10101
      @DANGER10101 Před 3 lety +48

      No because you see am too lazy to use it for anything so it's mostly in mint condition

    • @bmgg5051
      @bmgg5051 Před 3 lety +1

      ahahaha

    • @HsinTsungChu
      @HsinTsungChu Před 3 lety +8

      The molecules in your bones could have resided in someone else’s before

    • @comradegarrett1202
      @comradegarrett1202 Před 2 lety +13

      A more gruesome version of Hemingway's "six word tragedy": "Baby organs for transplant. Slightly used."

  • @seanm7445
    @seanm7445 Před 4 lety +1681

    I tried to order a skeleton online but the price was astronomical.
    I was told that I could get it much cheaper, the downside being that it would be missing two limbs.
    It really did cost me an arm and a leg.

    • @dismiggo
      @dismiggo Před 4 lety +64

      That was the greatest dad joke I have ever read. I just wanted you to know that.

    • @Galvion1980
      @Galvion1980 Před 4 lety +4

      Ba-dum tish! XD

    • @cantrelljacombs8964
      @cantrelljacombs8964 Před 4 lety +1

      Sean M What website?

    • @wholeNwon
      @wholeNwon Před 4 lety +23

      So you bought at once and didn't make any bones about the price. YOu could have fought tooth and nail about the money or tried to jaw him down. Well, I'm just ribbing you about it.

    • @RolferShannon
      @RolferShannon Před 3 lety +1

      🤣😂

  • @JobvanderZwan
    @JobvanderZwan Před 4 lety +745

    ".. so I don't agree with myself any more"
    And that is why I love the science youtubers the most: they update their views as they learn and aren't afraid to admit that they were wrong

    • @ChemiCalChems
      @ChemiCalChems Před 4 lety +38

      This behavior only mirrors that of scientists in general. Science demands being able to say we were wrong, which makes it the most successful philosophy for finding knowledge in history.

    • @LabGecko
      @LabGecko Před 2 lety +8

      @@ChemiCalChems said _"This behavior only mirrors that of scientists in general"_
      I believe this was Job van der Zwan's point, only that we're commenting on a YT video, hence the specificity.

  • @KhAnubis
    @KhAnubis Před 4 lety +846

    Journalism skills aside, I‘m really glad you‘re bringing an issue like this to the light. I knew a little bit about various organ harvesting scandals, but nothing on this level

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +176

      Honestly it's a great book - really recommend it, you'd enjoy. The other chapter that I want to make into a video is about the blood farms in north India. That is gruesome horror movie stuff.

    • @FaerieDust
      @FaerieDust Před 4 lety +20

      @@MedlifeCrisis Jesus, that sounds horrifying

    • @ambulocetusnatans
      @ambulocetusnatans Před 4 lety +37

      @@MedlifeCrisis Weren't you a bit nervous to knock on that door? You might have become a specimen yourself.

    • @moragmacgregor6792
      @moragmacgregor6792 Před 4 lety +10

      @Medlife Crisis
      Oh my freaking goddess. Will the proposed episode make me feel better or worse? The image that flashed in my mind could scarcely be worse, but it is mercifully blurry

    • @masterspark9880
      @masterspark9880 Před 3 lety

      Oh hey it’s you

  • @jdenmark1287
    @jdenmark1287 Před 4 lety +289

    I have a bone to pick with you about your exhaustive use of calcified puns. You have thoroughly picked them clean, and left me with only disjointed, fractured material, not worthy of a decent burial. The gristle and sinew if you will, with no meat or marrow.

  • @paraboo8994
    @paraboo8994 Před 4 lety +402

    I shared a flat with a medical student for three years and she had this amazingly detailed articulated skeleton in her room.
    We called him Twiggy and decorated him according to the seasons.
    Advent wreath and Christmas lights in winter, flower garlands and bunny ears headband for Easter - that was the only time I actually felt like decorating 😂

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +74

      Kinda like this? twitter.com/MedCrisis/status/680125329126604800

    • @paraboo8994
      @paraboo8994 Před 4 lety +58

      @@MedlifeCrisis not nearly as elaborate 😂 though she did use him as a coat rack for her lab coat sometimes

    • @madil2259
      @madil2259 Před 4 lety +5

      @@paraboo8994 yup, my friends used to do that.

    • @sasdagreat8052
      @sasdagreat8052 Před 4 lety +42

      I like how everyone decides to name their skeletons for no reason. We had a full size display skeleton in our English classroom, and the teacher used to call him... Bob. Just Bob.
      Damn, I miss Bob...

    • @hannahherrmann4921
      @hannahherrmann4921 Před 4 lety +23

      @@sasdagreat8052 my English teacher in grade school had a skeleton named Bobby and she claimed she killed him herself.

  • @Maazin5
    @Maazin5 Před 4 lety +576

    2:38 "Corpses would never survive a trip to England" Sounds funnier than you probably intended

    • @FaerieDust
      @FaerieDust Před 4 lety +32

      Oh, I'm certain he knew...

    • @ToriKo_
      @ToriKo_ Před 4 lety

      Maazin5 i don’t get it

    • @dontmindme8709
      @dontmindme8709 Před 4 lety +32

      @@ToriKo_ Hard to survive when you're already a corpse, eh?

    • @DieFlabbergast
      @DieFlabbergast Před 4 lety +34

      Dead on arrival?

    • @eloisanzara237
      @eloisanzara237 Před 4 lety +1

      Bruh, I just saw this comment as soon as he said it

  • @amarug
    @amarug Před 4 lety +421

    Don't give up on investigative journalism, you are a genius with anything video. One of a handful of channels where I watch every video, start to end, undistracted.

    • @RobespierreThePoof
      @RobespierreThePoof Před rokem

      Indeed, this is quite good, though I believe he already has his hands full being a cardiologist.

  • @johnopalko5223
    @johnopalko5223 Před 4 lety +197

    A secretary where I used to work had a human skull on her desk. It wore her late father's police uniform cap. This was at Bell Labs. Most of the people who worked there tended to be a bit unusual.
    A lot of people were freaked out by it. I admired it then picked it up, turned it over, and peered into the foramen magnum to see if it was real. It wasn't. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed.
    It was a really good simulation, though. It felt like bone and had a nice heft to it.

    • @johnopalko5223
      @johnopalko5223 Před 3 lety +9

      @@williambplibs5239 I'm doing quite well. Thank you for asking.
      You guys really could have come up with a better name for foreign exchange trading. I'm old enough that, when I hear "forex," I automatically think of lambskin condoms. (Yes, I know it was spelled differently.)

  • @olenickel6013
    @olenickel6013 Před 4 lety +240

    Curiously enough, medschools in Germany actually have an abundance of donor corpses to the point they actually started charging donors for parts of the burial afterwards instead of covering all the cost as they used to.

    • @jdenmark1287
      @jdenmark1287 Před 4 lety +72

      Of course the Germans, being completely logical and slightly thrifty would have that issue.

    • @ambulocetusnatans
      @ambulocetusnatans Před 4 lety +5

      That's one way to solve the problem.

    • @milobem4458
      @milobem4458 Před 4 lety +8

      These are the same people that used to charge people for train tickets to KZ Auschwitz, so no surprise there...

    • @lekhakaananta5864
      @lekhakaananta5864 Před 4 lety +14

      Then why isn't Germany the leading ethical exporter of human skeletons yet?

    • @BrosBrothersLP
      @BrosBrothersLP Před 4 lety +29

      @@lekhakaananta5864 cause the bodies need to kept track of as it is guaranteed that at some point the families get to bury the ash

  • @riturajseal6945
    @riturajseal6945 Před 4 lety +84

    Judging by the numerous deaths in West Bengal due to COVID19 Young Brothers must be back in business.

    • @ramblingrob4693
      @ramblingrob4693 Před 4 lety +8

      we got 32000 to spare in the UK most are very old though, but cheap just ask Boris

    • @ellenorbjornsdottir1166
      @ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Před 4 lety +6

      @Suman Kundu "beware of secularists" you say. Why should I be wary of people who care about truth and facts and are not afraid to go against religious dogma?

    • @balajisharma3448
      @balajisharma3448 Před 4 lety +13

      @@ellenorbjornsdottir1166 secularist is a regional lingo in india, the assumption here is that 'so called secular local government in west bengal is burying bodies covid 19 victims while oppsion party which is religious is raising a hue about it.

    • @ellenorbjornsdottir1166
      @ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Před 4 lety +2

      @@balajisharma3448 crazy world

  • @appexsos
    @appexsos Před 4 lety +118

    I bought my anatomy set of real bones in the first year of medical school for about Rs 8000( £85 ). They are passed down from seniors to juniors with a slight increase in price every year. That guy was definitely trying to fool you !

    • @cmoneman3025
      @cmoneman3025 Před 4 lety +10

      I thought the same, however he did request a full articulated skeleton which is different from a full bone set.... Not 6 lakhs difference I don't think, but I don't know

    • @divyasharontom4526
      @divyasharontom4526 Před 3 lety +8

      Yeah we do that too in our medical College! We gave about 13,000 rupees, much less than 6 lakhs

    • @existentialist1539
      @existentialist1539 Před 3 lety

      Divya Sharon Tom where in india?

    • @divyasharontom4526
      @divyasharontom4526 Před 3 lety +4

      @@existentialist1539 Kerala

    • @ashutoshlakade3909
      @ashutoshlakade3909 Před 3 lety +1

      7000 in our college

  • @jackalker6384
    @jackalker6384 Před 4 lety +86

    my local college has a real adult human skeleton in the art department. i asked why and the teacher said she found it in a skip when she was training at a university lol.

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +131

      That is definitely her ex-husband

    • @jackalker6384
      @jackalker6384 Před 4 lety +29

      @@MedlifeCrisis she did a very good job of mounting and articulating it

    • @jdenmark1287
      @jdenmark1287 Před 4 lety +18

      @@jackalker6384 well she is an artist.

    • @ql1couk
      @ql1couk Před 4 lety +3

      @@MedlifeCrisis Carole Baskin?

    • @Idntgt
      @Idntgt Před 4 lety

      @@ql1couk Her husband's bones were eaten by the tigers, so no

  • @davidbooth7282
    @davidbooth7282 Před 4 lety +124

    I've just finished up my second year at manchester medical school and im pretty sure the skeletons we still use in the lab are the original Bengali ones, remember a tutor mentioning it last year

    • @unclepodger
      @unclepodger Před 4 lety +21

      Probs the Brits created the famine to garner more Bengali bodies for medical schools ;)

    • @vinitasharma3049
      @vinitasharma3049 Před 3 lety +6

      @@unclepodger i guess so, 2-3 million people (it might have been more than that considering freedom of press during that time) died so, they might have sell at least those which weren't given proper cremation.

    • @tsrenis
      @tsrenis Před 2 lety

      @@unclepodger eh I wouldn't be surprised, it's much like the Brits to pull something like that.
      Probably coincidental though, like how the Brits started demanding more food from Ireland despite the great potato famine happening.

  • @MrBeastiemon
    @MrBeastiemon Před 4 lety +85

    Man now you're even going to exotic places to investigate something and then film yourself talking on site about what youve discovered??
    You have literally become tom scott i dont know what to tell you.

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +61

      ONE TAKE! ONE TAKE!!

    • @israel963
      @israel963 Před 4 lety +3

      MrBeastiemon IDK, if he said “Hullo!” he could definitely beat out Scott Manley 👌👍

    • @LisaBowers
      @LisaBowers Před 4 lety +9

      @@israel963 With the amount of people Rohin has helped rescue on airplanes, it'd be funny if he added Scott Manley's "fly safe" to the end of his videos. 😄

  • @Kim_Miller
    @Kim_Miller Před 4 lety +79

    My Dad was a GP and surgeon here in Australia and he had a disarticulated skeleton in a box at home. Some of my early memories are of playing with it with my brothers when we were kids back in the 1950s and 60s. My most enduring memory of it was my fascination with the web of thin bones inside the skull. Having a skeleton at home was a bit of an attraction for some of our friends after school. I have no idea what their parents thought about it.
    The box had a paper label inside the lid, which your pic at the 3:20 point reminded me about. We knew back then that it came from India. My Dad (born 1919) trained at Sydney University in the 1930s and 40s so I imagine the skeleton is from about that time.

    • @JustScrapHD
      @JustScrapHD Před 4 lety +17

      its kinda disturbing to think that some bloke died in india just so some kids in australia can play with his empty skull lmao

    • @piedpiper1172
      @piedpiper1172 Před 2 lety +1

      @@JustScrapHD Ayy just make sure you take some shots out o’ me dome to keep the party going and I’m cool with it. I’m not using them anymore.

  • @graealex
    @graealex Před 4 lety +336

    0:25 What IS actually going on here? Empty beaker, a rather basic microscope, cheap VR headset, gaming laptop, everyone wears a stethoscope, only one wears a face mask and gloves, but no other PPE, and the crude molecule drawings on the flip chart in the background? And the well balanced diversity in the actors... "So let's all pretend we're doing some actual work here while being very including and sciency" and around comes the most cliché stock footage situation you could ever imagine.

    • @valeriavagapova
      @valeriavagapova Před 4 lety +50

      I love stock footage.

    • @digitalbrentable
      @digitalbrentable Před 4 lety +80

      One day alien archaeologists will reconstruct our civilisation based on stock footage and it's going to be hilarious.

    • @ThirdXenocide
      @ThirdXenocide Před 4 lety +23

      Best part to me is the random VR headset just sitting on the table.

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +147

      Yeah the cheap VR headset was my favourite bit, the guy next to it also seems to be questioning all his life choices. I was going to put a joke it about that too but didn't want to get too distracted. Stock footage really is the gift that keeps on giving.

    • @Happy_Shopper
      @Happy_Shopper Před 4 lety +1

      @@MedlifeCrisis hahaha

  • @MsAnpassad
    @MsAnpassad Před 4 lety +51

    Actually, there is a way to prove where they came from, or at least where they grew up, and that is to test the strontium levels in the bones, as they differs depending on where you grew up.

  • @sgcarney
    @sgcarney Před 4 lety +33

    Thanks for having me on Rohin. As always it's really interesting seeing you dig into my work.

    • @williambplibs5239
      @williambplibs5239 Před 3 lety

      Hello, how're you doing,I’m a licensed account manager , I promote worthy investment plans, in the likes of Forex, our local digital currencies and also mentor the blockchain technology, ever came across the word forex??

    • @larslemn4835
      @larslemn4835 Před 3 lety

      @@williambplibs5239 I'm the CEO of forex. Thank you.

  • @MedlifeCrisis
    @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +672

    I normally try to put a humerus joke here but $12 for a year of CuriosityStream and Nebula is honestly a great deal. Only a numbskull would miss out www.curiositystream.com/medlife

    • @russkyseloc8131
      @russkyseloc8131 Před 4 lety +8

      Medlife Crisis I see what you’ve done there

    • @russkyseloc8131
      @russkyseloc8131 Před 4 lety +32

      You can’t fool us by appealing to our funny bone

    • @finneganflaherty2699
      @finneganflaherty2699 Před 4 lety +4

      Completely unrelated to the fascinating and kind of horrifying subject of this video, I find it really interesting to hear how the way you speak changes in the recorded conversation compared with how you speak most of the time in your videos. I'm curious if you feel like one is your "real" dialect and the other one is something you have to "put on" or are they both "real"?

    • @juliaconnell
      @juliaconnell Před 4 lety +4

      LOL (laughter which is genuine - but will probably be deleted once the deluge of comments on this start rolling in)

    • @phitsf5475
      @phitsf5475 Před 4 lety +4

      What do you think are the least number of body parts required for someone to live? Special technology is allowed.
      Arms and legs - Gone
      Top of skull - Gone
      Eyes - Gone
      Jaws - Gone
      Fruit and 2 veg - Gone
      Eggs and tubes - Gone
      Ribcage - Gone
      Appendix - Gone
      Kidneys - Gone - Dialysis
      Lungs and Heart - Gone - ECMO
      Stomach - Gone - IV Multivitamins in a hearty goo
      Spine and Spinal Cord - Possibly important. TBC pending Elon Musk
      Will heads in jars be possible like in Futurama? When?

  • @Nikki-lodeon
    @Nikki-lodeon Před 4 lety +52

    This would have been a perfect Caitlin Doughty colab!!!
    ...Bentham's head...

  • @SurajThapar
    @SurajThapar Před 4 lety +79

    "Any body for spare ribs?"

  • @brentblake8306
    @brentblake8306 Před 4 lety +18

    "Ethnically ambiguous face", puns, puns and more puns, alliteration , and sooo funny!
    Born teacher, born to riff, born to Ted Talk!

  • @unclepodger
    @unclepodger Před 4 lety +105

    My hometown (Kolkata) seems to have a rather interesting history in regards to medicine. It houses the oldest medical college in Asia, and now I learned that it was the centre of a bone trade.
    Ayy you visited the city during Durga Puja!

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +44

      I'm there most years!

    • @garretphegley8796
      @garretphegley8796 Před 4 lety +8

      @@MedlifeCrisis Did you stay at the YMCA Kolkata? It's the Oldest one in Asia. I've not heard great things.

    • @edwardelric717
      @edwardelric717 Před 3 lety +1

      @@garretphegley8796 if you visit India don't stay anywhere except reputable hotels. You will live longer.

    • @infinityxtanishq8712
      @infinityxtanishq8712 Před 3 lety +6

      @@edwardelric717 not really

    • @orkkojit
      @orkkojit Před rokem

      @@garretphegley8796 Stay either at the Grand Hotel or at ITC Royal Bengal or Taj Bengal. All other hotels are pretty dubious

  • @q_kun1494
    @q_kun1494 Před 2 lety +7

    Only an Indian especially a Bengali would notice your t-shirt. The level of subtle details in your videos man. It's genius.
    Bengali doctor here

  • @psychonaut1829
    @psychonaut1829 Před 4 lety +18

    In Return of The Living Dead, someone jokes about a skeleton farm in India, less than a year later, the Us stopped getting skeletons from India. "How many people you know die with a perfect set of teeth?"

  • @joelhall5124
    @joelhall5124 Před 4 lety +35

    "What is this? Does your face have a pelvis?"
    - Family Guy quote I vaguely remembered.

    • @williambplibs5239
      @williambplibs5239 Před 3 lety

      Hello, how're you doing,I’m a licensed account manager , I promote worthy investment plans, in the likes of Forex, our local digital currencies and also mentor the blockchain technology, ever came across the word forex??

  • @CamelliaSinensis
    @CamelliaSinensis Před 4 lety +77

    I'm a med-student, 5th year, my university maybe is lagging behind but in the cranial fossas there is no replacement for a real skull the synthetic ones were decent but not as useful as the human ones the university have stored since the 80s
    To clarify, my university is in Latvia and to the best of my knowledge, all carcasses are acquired withing the country

    • @rudolfhajdu2708
      @rudolfhajdu2708 Před 4 lety +5

      2th year here. It's pretty much same in Czech Republic.

    • @madil2259
      @madil2259 Před 4 lety +2

      I agree. The anatomy of the skull is just too complex for a synthetic skull to be up to par.

    • @LUXTONY2017
      @LUXTONY2017 Před 4 lety

      RSU?

    • @CamelliaSinensis
      @CamelliaSinensis Před 4 lety +1

      @Speaking Truth I've been only in contact with "fresh" cadavers 6 times during my year and a half of anatomy, Our final exam was 1 on 1 where the cadaver were mostly utilized for examination, we about 5 teachers in the room and people would queue to get to the dissection table (a sad fact but they were mostly elderly, alcoholics or IDU who no one cared for thus making the donation a more financially viable way of dealing with the body, I was lucky to have the chance of preparing one in our pathology department)

    • @CamelliaSinensis
      @CamelliaSinensis Před 4 lety +1

      @Speaking Truth In anatomy, once a week aswell in the anatomical theatre, we mostly used models, bones, books(obviously), schemes, the new fangled 3d dissection table and human organs and limbs coated in some sort of embalming agent (felt rubbery almost, but the detail was outstanding and looked very fresh). Complete cadavers treated with formaldehyde on the other hand were a rare sight

  • @rubenb8653
    @rubenb8653 Před 4 lety +27

    well, the title reminds me of vice, but im glad as hell the channel is still pure medlife crisis :)

  • @Snakke40
    @Snakke40 Před 4 lety +11

    Just admit it already, this entire video was actually an elaborate setup for that joke at the end.

  • @Kim_Miller
    @Kim_Miller Před 4 lety +10

    After you started speaking of Scott Carney's book I was waiting for the pun on "carne" = Latin for "flesh". Time to lift your game. 😅

  • @trytolag
    @trytolag Před 4 lety +35

    The amount of skeleton-related puns in this video, is frankly impressive. I love the video!

    • @gasdive
      @gasdive Před 4 lety +11

      It was humerus, but I just couldn't get most of them through my thick skull.

  • @ramizahmed7456
    @ramizahmed7456 Před 4 lety +97

    Yes..It is completely obtainable here in India..
    Being a graduate from one of the top medical colleges of Bengal I myself have studied from them.You can obtain it at low as 250 to 300 usd for bilateral set.They are generally passed on from seniors to juniors.Almost all colleges in India or atleast in bengal do study from them.Though I hardly doubt any foul play, these sets are generally exhumed from cemeteries, or harvested from unclaimed bodies which medical colleges tend to get plenty of.

    • @sgcarney
      @sgcarney Před 4 lety +17

      Ramiz Ahmed foul play conceivably includes stealing them from graveyards.

    • @ramizahmed7456
      @ramizahmed7456 Před 4 lety +7

      Well just as Medlife himself said, They are dead either way..Atleast now they are dying for a nobler cause.😄

    • @creshiell
      @creshiell Před 4 lety +7

      @@ramizahmed7456 if I try to visit my mom after she dies and her grave is dug up, everyone is catching hands

    • @ramizahmed7456
      @ramizahmed7456 Před 4 lety +17

      Well, @@creshiell, in a developing country like india, with less than 1.3% of gdp spent on healthcare, having a highly sofisticated 3d printed skeletal set for all the 250 or odd students of an academic yr of a college which is among 7-8 prestined colleges in a city...and where most of the students, yet talented, but come from very poor background, maybe they are son of a farmer or a street vendor...yet irrespective of their status they study almost free of cost in these state institutes..there having artificial skeletal sets is out of questions.These real skeletons are the best shot you have got. And also the details, intricacies and variabilities of a real skeleton can be of no match for the artificial one.
      You may feel disgust...But if you learn more about the history of medical science,you will see it is far more cruel than than you have been thinking and yet medical science has profited from them and is saving lives.
      Creshiell, I know you may feel bad, but being a doctor you have to make hard choices, learn to capitalize on your emotions and see everything from the basis of risk-rewarded outcomes.
      I wouldn't have been too angry, if I were at your places, only if I could make sure that they are being used for a better cause and no bastard is absurdly profiting from them..
      Yet you see...Patients treated by Indian doctors in US have lower death rates.
      medicaldialogues.in/patients-treated-by-indian-doctors-in-us-have-lower-death-rate-harvard-study

    • @creshiell
      @creshiell Před 4 lety +13

      @@ramizahmed7456 all patients in America with minority doctors have better outcomes because for some reason white doctors hate poor, fat, and minority patients. I as a child would have died from a pneumonia if my mom hadn't been an RT and had just followed my pediatricians instructions to take me back home. Dunno why, it's just the way it is.
      Number two, the two choices aren't "don't dig up any graves" and "dig up every grave". The third choice is "ask first." I don't mind donating my mom's body but holy shit if I just show up and it's gone, EVERYONE, the yard keeper, his dog, the robbers, the medical students, everyone is catching hands.

  • @emrmch
    @emrmch Před 4 lety +10

    Great work - I’ve a MA in history of medicine and have always wanted to do my PhD (eventually) on grave robbing/trade in human bones/bodies so I thoroughly enjoyed this

  • @Dr.Gunsmith
    @Dr.Gunsmith Před 4 lety +53

    I bet some of them children’s skeletons are poor kids that’s been snatched and murdered, horrendous thought.

    • @peachy7586
      @peachy7586 Před 3 lety +4

      I think so too...😔😔

    • @bruhbruh6670
      @bruhbruh6670 Před 3 lety +6

      A church here in india killed older people and sold their bones

    • @stillhere1425
      @stillhere1425 Před 3 lety

      “Maybe they just starved to death,” she comforted them.

    • @preetamkumar9496
      @preetamkumar9496 Před 2 lety

      @@stillhere1425 mother Theresa

  • @chrissscottt
    @chrissscottt Před 4 lety +20

    The idea of an articulate skeleton rather tickles my funny bone.

    • @BPantherPink
      @BPantherPink Před 4 lety

      Yes... it has been through art school !!

  • @robertr6668
    @robertr6668 Před 4 lety +14

    That House MD Vicodin poster is just amazing!

    • @Thumbsupurbum
      @Thumbsupurbum Před 4 lety +1

      I wonder if someone actually got Hugh Laurie to pose like that, or is it a photoshop of some sort?

  • @SuLokify
    @SuLokify Před 4 lety +11

    I just want to say the writing for this video is particularly good. You have a way with words and it was a pleasure to listen to, never mind the subject matter and educational value

  • @AnjaLSL
    @AnjaLSL Před 3 lety +6

    When I studied medicine (in Denmark) in the first semester we were each loaned a small wooden box with a set of real human bones. They were from India, we were told, and quite old. They were also a bit small and often a bit brittle. But they were not purchased anymore and thus there were also many plastic skeleton sets.

  • @Corporis
    @Corporis Před 4 lety +17

    Ohh man! You _already know_ I found this one fascinating! Great work man, this showed off some awesome journalistic skills.

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +8

      I added some picture-swishing sound effects just because you do them!

    • @GabrielSantAnaCarrijo
      @GabrielSantAnaCarrijo Před 4 lety +2

      Hello people lurking in the comment section. Please check this guy's channel, it's pretty great!

  • @dfgdfg_
    @dfgdfg_ Před 3 lety +3

    This is my favourite video on CZcams. Thanks Rohin!

  • @sleepnobodyzzz
    @sleepnobodyzzz Před 4 lety +5

    Lovely expository content on this, I hadn't heard much of what you talk about in the video and I do very well appreciate the recordings that provide insight; wonderful content :)

  • @oight
    @oight Před 3 lety

    omfg watching more now, this is such a good video. good on you for having the courage to go through that and bringing this more to light

  • @ownerdirector4168
    @ownerdirector4168 Před 4 lety +3

    Not bad for a first time investigation. Feluda would be proud.👍

  • @Semiicolin5
    @Semiicolin5 Před 4 lety +3

    What a high quality video and amazingly informative. It's like I just watched a mini Panorama (with more puns)! Your channel really is going from strength to strength!

  • @raztubes
    @raztubes Před 4 lety +64

    Just curious, are healed fractures and other such issues something that disqualifies a skeleton from being used in med school? Or are they rather desirable features?

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +84

      I'd imagine a healed fracture might be quite an interesting feature - but it's rare they're very obvious unless the bone healed in a significantly abnormal manner

    • @JennaGetsCreative
      @JennaGetsCreative Před 4 lety +34

      Not sure about med school, but the anthropology department at the university I attended had several complete human skeletons in a wide array of conditions. I did a forensics course one semester, and every week we analyzed another group of bones of the same skeleton in small groups. (Each group was assigned a single skeleton.) At the end of the semester we presented to the rest of the class, making arguments for the deceased's sex, age, ancestral geographic origin, type of career (laborer or not), and if we felt it was applicable, cause of death. One group had an elderly male skeleton with severe arthritis and osteoporosis. My group had a middle aged female who had definitely experience a leg fracture in her younger years, and if I recall correctly, one of the carpals of her left hand was missing.

    • @AngDavies
      @AngDavies Před 4 lety +7

      @@MedlifeCrisis does it depend on the bone broken? Some bones can't be properly cast because of various reasons and might not heal straight as a ruler (I once broke my collarbone,and i can feel it's slightly Nike logo shaped compared to the other) but I doubt it would be easy spotting the previous fracture in my fibia

    • @katiekane5247
      @katiekane5247 Před 4 lety

      @@MedlifeCrisis I've got ribs 2-7 on the left plated. I've fractured the plate on rib 7. Would make a great teaching specimen.

  • @Uhlbelk
    @Uhlbelk Před 4 lety +12

    Dissection at our medical school was approximately 4 hours at a time (less depending on your skill). So yea, you didn't eat a lot before lab because of the smell, so when you were done of course you were hungry, it was close to dinner time.

    • @therabbithat
      @therabbithat Před 4 měsíci

      Did skill make it take less time or more time?

    • @Uhlbelk
      @Uhlbelk Před 4 měsíci

      @@therabbithat usually less time, unless the lab techs/teacher wanted to use your cadaver as a demonstration for the rest of the class. cadaver dissection is sadly fairly useless when it comes to learning surgery as the preservative crosslinks all the tissues in the body.

  • @notdaveschannel9843
    @notdaveschannel9843 Před 4 lety +10

    It's quite difficult to leave your body to medical science in the UK. I tried to do it with both my parents as per their wishes and the arrangements they'd made but there were a long list of dealbreakers that seemed to cover most of what a human would die of.

    • @jcortese3300
      @jcortese3300 Před 4 lety

      That seems odd. If you died of something strange, I'd have imagined that medical students would love to poke around in your bits when you've stopped using them.

    • @notdaveschannel9843
      @notdaveschannel9843 Před 4 lety +2

      @@jcortese3300 I think they're given to 1st year medical students who need to see what 'normal' human anatomy looks like. Neither of my parents died from anything exotic or unusual.

  • @easymedicinebytmd8247
    @easymedicinebytmd8247 Před 4 lety +6

    There are so many details on a real skeleton! And so many bones and processes in the skull! This brings me right back to first year med school! Great video!

  • @prakritisingha6906
    @prakritisingha6906 Před 4 lety +2

    I am a 1st year student at calcutta national medical college!! non articulated bones set are only required in 1st year so the students pass it down from seniors to juniors every year price ranging from 10,000 INR to 19,000 INR. the same bone set is being used for many generations

  • @LynxChan
    @LynxChan Před 4 lety +7

    I did my honours project at the medical school. Our lab was just across the way from the anatomy labs the med students had their practicals in. I would run into them leaving class in utter hysterics all the time. Intellectually, I know it was probably a defense mechanism, but it really made me reconsider my idea of donating my body to the medical school when I died.

    • @WintrBorn
      @WintrBorn Před 4 lety

      LynxChan I can only hope I can bring joy woth my death 😉. Honestly, I'm good with sending myself off, if no other reason, my kids won't have to deal with those costs. Wake Forest Uni will cremate and ship when done, and that makes things easy.

    • @ilamathysekar6177
      @ilamathysekar6177 Před 4 lety

      True I was ok with all until I saw that
      Then I’m mortified now
      Although there is no use of me after my death but I’m scared 😅

  • @gabrielleshapiro2451
    @gabrielleshapiro2451 Před 4 lety +9

    This is really interesting, I always assumed the bones were donated especially after a biology class in highschool where we watched a documentary on medical school skeletons; I wonder why these practices were never mentioned.

  • @TaariqHassim2
    @TaariqHassim2 Před 4 lety +5

    Funnily enough, my University gives a skeleton set to groups of eight students when we study anatomy. We aren't allowed to remove the skeletons from University premises as they're actual human remains. Apparently having these old skeletons is cheaper than getting synthetic sets for students.

    • @MedlifeCrisis
      @MedlifeCrisis  Před 4 lety +4

      Same. There were hanging articulated skeletons and then a big ass box o' bones. Like a lucky dip.

  • @xmlthegreat
    @xmlthegreat Před 4 lety +2

    The puns make this video doubly worth it. Thanks bhai!

  • @spidersurvivor6937
    @spidersurvivor6937 Před 4 lety +4

    Woah man, I'm really fucking impressed with this video!! I'm fascinated with thid topic but wasn't expecting a deep dive on location, well done sir!

  • @nijnij3988
    @nijnij3988 Před 4 lety +15

    Great video, thanks Rohin! And by the way, I think you fared better as an untrained investigative journalist than I would as an untrained cardiologist, so don't be too tough on yourself :p
    Hope your wife is feeling better!

  • @ME-xh5zq
    @ME-xh5zq Před 4 lety +79

    Aye big up Richard Head

  • @aayushisingh1500
    @aayushisingh1500 Před 4 lety +2

    This is really interesting and you covered it with grave details... I used to think that colleges get the bones from the cadavers we dissect in anatomy and it’s passed down from seniors.....

  • @Gymnure
    @Gymnure Před 4 lety +1

    I bloody love this channel

  • @mksabourinable
    @mksabourinable Před 4 lety +6

    I just studied art but we had a real human skeleton to study when we were doing anatomy, but my teacher said it was donated... Like it was a guy who put his body up for donation before he died.
    But here in Canada it's super easy to sign up, I'm signed up in fact. Like when you renew your health card they ask if you'd like to sign up to be a donor (either for organ donation or for medical research or both) I just said "yea use whatever you can for whatever you can, it's not like I'm gonna be using it once I'm dead!" And then you get asked again for clarification every time afterwards when you renew (it has your photo on it so you gotta get that shit updated every 5yrs). Like you can specify if you don't want certain body parts or tissues used, or for certain things, but ye.
    (Also btw the health card is what you need here to get our government paid healthcare. Also it's done on the provincial level so idk if all the shit I just said is only for Ontario or is a thing elsewhere too)

  • @campbell953
    @campbell953 Před 4 lety +7

    "Actually I don't agree with myself anymore" me five minutes after I do anything at all

  • @HowToWatchMovies
    @HowToWatchMovies Před 4 lety

    I clicked on this expecting the usual, great quality Medlife Crisis video. I did NOT expect to be BLOWN AWAY by your best video, yet!!

  • @jashannashwyn3467
    @jashannashwyn3467 Před 4 lety +2

    Fantastic topic! and a funny coincidence haha, was reading ‘The Red Market’ for the past couple of days and you posted this vid😮👌🏻

  • @TheRebel57
    @TheRebel57 Před 4 lety +4

    i never realized that wasnt a full scale model...i thought it just was in the background

  • @bethanyjensen
    @bethanyjensen Před 4 lety +7

    You and Caitlin Doughty of Ask a Mortician might need to do a collaboration. The Venn diagram-type overlap of style & content struck me.

  • @kushegga95
    @kushegga95 Před 4 lety

    Would love to see more of these longer vidd

  • @bilawalm1
    @bilawalm1 Před 4 lety +1

    Love your videos mate.

  • @davidenglund
    @davidenglund Před 4 lety +3

    I was getting bored and yawning in the first part. But then you went undercover, and we saw you on the bus in India one the way to dig up some skeletons. "Yea, lets go Doc! Take me on a magic carpet ride!" You then gave us intrigue, drama, and no small amount of dry English humor. That's the way to turn a video around! :)

  • @gcar5214
    @gcar5214 Před 4 lety +26

    3:17 my dad has one of them under his bed!!!

    • @MeppyMan
      @MeppyMan Před 4 lety +5

      G Car I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but...

  • @isla25
    @isla25 Před 4 lety

    Excellent as always, thank you.

  • @nenzianwari
    @nenzianwari Před 4 lety +1

    Wow doc. Certainly sends a shiver down the spine doesn't it?

  • @friedmule5403
    @friedmule5403 Před 4 lety +4

    What about skeleton of bone diseases? I think of, among others, the terrible diseases where mussels turns into bones?

  • @ooffoo5130
    @ooffoo5130 Před 4 lety +4

    "corpses would never survive a trip to england"
    you don't say

  • @Technik500
    @Technik500 Před 2 lety

    Just love your videos!

  • @vanhetgoor
    @vanhetgoor Před 3 lety +1

    For many poor families selling the skeleton of a departed loved one is the only way of sending a family member to university.

  • @JRod0409
    @JRod0409 Před 4 lety +5

    17:40 Is easily my favorite line from him ever.

  • @prithvirajdj
    @prithvirajdj Před 4 lety +5

    I've a 5' 10" full human skeleton. Got it for free.
    As of now, it has some flesh around it and is in working condition.

  • @Bubu461989
    @Bubu461989 Před 4 lety

    Jesus....I already love your videos....but I REALLY ADMIRED the word play in this video! ahahah good one! Keep up the awesome work!

  • @RobespierreThePoof
    @RobespierreThePoof Před rokem

    This entire story is news to me, so thank you for bringing it to light for the many of us who just have never been made aware of this issue.

  • @themedchief
    @themedchief Před 4 lety +3

    "I guess I'm not just as hip"... Oh my oh my 😂😂😂

  • @albertbatfinder5240
    @albertbatfinder5240 Před 4 lety +3

    6,000 rupees? Not surprised at the price. I knew it would cost an arm and a leg.

  • @Highbar250
    @Highbar250 Před 4 lety

    Excellent work, as usual

  • @JONSBONES
    @JONSBONES Před 3 lety

    Great video, very informative

  • @BlakieTT
    @BlakieTT Před 4 lety +5

    Dear Dr. Frankie: How fast do viruses/bacteria move? For example - If someone comes in contact with covid-19 by the tip of their index finger, how long will it take to spread to say, their elbow? If this subject interests you/is interesting, please make a video for us on it. ♥ Thank you all for your work. ♥

    • @SatishYadav-fo8yt
      @SatishYadav-fo8yt Před 4 lety +7

      Viruses cannot move like what you think. Moving requires energy which they can't make, neither they have flagella or something like it. Actually viruses are kinda dead (inactive) unless they infect a cell (controversial).
      Bacteria can move at a speed of 2-200 micrometers per sec, i think you can now calculate how long they will take to move the length of your forearm!

    • @rylandavis2976
      @rylandavis2976 Před 11 měsíci

      Viruses will move wherever you put them

  • @kabir3510
    @kabir3510 Před 3 lety +3

    Being from Kolkata, this is hilarious. Because we had a Skeleton in my Biology lab in High school that was obviously real.

  • @thedarkdemon011
    @thedarkdemon011 Před 4 lety +1

    I went through medical school using real human specimens to study anatomy, the university get them from morgues, they were unclaimed bodies, or people who willingly donated their bodies to science. And if you wanted to acquire human bones to study, you could contact senior students that already had them. A fully articulated skull was a very popular piece.

  • @muntahaislam7091
    @muntahaislam7091 Před 3 lety +2

    As a Bengali pre-health student, I find this so interesting! Keep it up, Dr. Francis 💝

  • @freja3930
    @freja3930 Před 4 lety +5

    @13:58 In the west, although not typically advertised the soul often seem to leave the body well before death, often shortly after middle school/junior high, sometimes remaining into early adulthood or in rare cases early thirties. Regardless of which, the harvesting of any deceased and especially non-deceased vessel will commonly highly frowned upon. But I try to feed my dog soul-less bones only, especially when i'm unsure of the vessels status..

  • @nerd_135
    @nerd_135 Před 4 lety +4

    I've perviously craved sushi after a fish disection in biology

  • @Deadpool-su2po
    @Deadpool-su2po Před 4 lety +1

    ship of theseus is such a deep cut dude props to you my man

  • @olliewatson1375
    @olliewatson1375 Před 4 lety +1

    My anatomy tutor used to tell us at medical school it was the formaldehyde preservative that made you hungry in dissection rooms - and it was supposedly potent enough that it was an old fashioned treatment for anorexia (which didn't work). I never found any data to back it up, but I like the story enough that it's one of the only things I've retained from my 1st year anatomy classes!

  • @BlakieTT
    @BlakieTT Před 4 lety +6

    "any skeletons in his closet" and the MIB reference...
    Gosh Rohin, lmfao. #TheBest :D
    Edit: I'm sorry, I hadn't reached the Dhalsim part of the vid yet... LMFAO! ♥♥♥

  • @VyvienneEaux
    @VyvienneEaux Před 4 lety +4

    15:22 Are those really human skulls? They look more like anthropometrically ambiguous Halloween decorations to me.

  • @jackroutledge352
    @jackroutledge352 Před 4 lety +1

    Wow! Your channel has had some great stuff - but I never expected proper investigative journalism! Makes me wonder why, if a random guy on his holidays with an iPhone can do this, the major newspapers can’t?

  • @joel1840
    @joel1840 Před 4 lety

    I never really thought of this before watching this documentary. This documentary is made so well.

  • @ghungrooseth1946
    @ghungrooseth1946 Před 4 lety +3

    Just noticed that he's wearing a Jagannath t-shirt lol

  • @unity_talon
    @unity_talon Před 4 lety +5

    'indian suppliers became experts in processing human skeletons',hmmmmmm, idk but this sounds disturbing, maybe cuz it is 1 am -.-

    • @krishnastarz
      @krishnastarz Před 4 lety +5

      i just found out ive walked past the Young Brothers officr several times now

    • @orkkojit
      @orkkojit Před 3 lety

      @@krishnastarz same lol I live there

  • @fatman80000
    @fatman80000 Před 4 lety

    Glad to hear from you. Hope you're doing ok.

  • @israel963
    @israel963 Před 4 lety +2

    Apologies for a serious question - I’m involved in K9 search and rescue; we do have very limited supplies of viscera/bone/etc for use in unit-wide training exercises (typically coming from previous searches, donations from coroners’ offices, or families of victims); however, to do daily training we have to source our own training articles, individuals have to source their own. Are you aware of any ethical sources of bone/tissue which don’t go through the bleaching process? It’s far too easy to come by bone which is from the grey market and it’s really difficult thing for us - we’d be potentially causing the disappearance of one person in order to find another, so it’s a bit of a difficult moral thing. And also the dogs freak out if we use our own tissue/blood from wounds because they know who the person it belongs to is, so that’s kind of a mean joke 🤷‍♂️

  • @magnusbruce4051
    @magnusbruce4051 Před 4 lety +3

    A friend of mine bought a human skull about a year or two ago. It wasn't easy for him to get but it seemed like it might have come from India. He keeps insisting it smells weird but I've stuck my nose right in it and it doesn't really smell of much to me. So yeah, that's my experience of the trade of human body parts.