You Could Sell Your Own Bones
One of the biggest bummers of imagining a skeleton trade is that strangers were profiting off of dead people’s bones, and yet the person who died never got to enjoy any of the money. This lead to a small corner of the industry where people who were dying in the hospital agreed to sell their bones to their doctor in exchange for cash.
In a story from The Maitland Daily Mercury in 1907, a young man in his 20’s had tragically been in an accident just two months after getting married, and the doctors at the hospital told him that he was not going to live. When he heard this, he asked if he could sell his body to science, and give the money to his young wife. They paid him $50, which is the modern-day equivalent of roughly $1,200. This may have been just enough to pay for his funeral, and to help her cover expenses immediately following his death. The doctors got a skeleton for a fraction of what they would normally pay, and they would have sent the body to a bone cleaner.
Today, a similar system is in place, but it is now illegal in the United States to pay for human bodies. Funerals are very expensive, and can cost up to $10,000. Cremations are a much cheaper option, but even that costs between $600 and $3,000. In the United States, people have the option to donate their body to science when they die. After one to two years, the body will be cremated for free.