Why we all need to see death and decay

The notion of 'human remains' can disturb, but as a custodian of anatomical specimens, I think it's important to understand death: it's a big part of life

Human Remains.

Two words, innocuous when apart but when placed together conjure up any number of negative scenarios. Perhaps it's because headlines like "Human Remains Found In Park" or similar are so often screamed at us from the tabloids, intimating a crime has been committed. Horror stories of people living in a house "with human remains" remind us of Norman Bates and the desiccated cadaver of his mother. Maybe it's because the organ retention scandals from Alder Hey and other hospitals in the mid 1990s, which led to the formation of the Human Tissue Authority, are so fresh in the minds of the general public that human remains are still associated with nefarious Frankenstein-ian behaviour. Whatever the cause of this discord it is erroneous: human remains are simply what is left of us as humans when we pass away. They remain.