Harvard to remove human skin binding from 1800s book
Kyiv • UNN
Harvard will remove the human skin binding from a 19th-century book due to ethical concerns about its origin from a deceased patient who did not give consent.
Harvard University has announced that it will remove the human skin binding from a 19th-century book in its library because of the "ethical nature" of the unusual binding. This was reported by The Guardian, according to UNN .
Details
The book, titled Destinées de l'Ame (or Destinies of the Soul), has been kept in Houghton University Library since the 1930s, but attracted international attention in 2014 when tests confirmed that it was bound in human skin.
The university said that after "careful study, stakeholder engagement and consideration" it would remove the skin dressings and work with authorities to "determine the final respectful placement of these human remains.
Addendum Addendum
The book was written by Arsène Ussé, a French novelist, in the mid-1880s as a reflection on the nature of having a soul and life after death. The first owner of the volume, the French physician Louis Boulanger, bound the book with human skin. Harvard said that Boulanger took the skin from a deceased patient at the hospital where he worked without consent.
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