Is it legal to buy and sell human remains in the USA? 

The short answer is mostly yes, apart from three states, Louisiana, Georgia, and Tennessee. The long answer is a little more complicated because it covers where the bones actually originated from.

Ex-Medical Human Bones.

Most ex-medical remains are completely legal to own, buy and sell worldwide, as long as they are from before the 1980’s ban, which prohibits the sales of human remains for private medical use. There are still some Indian suppliers who trade in medical skeletons, even though they are no longer allowed to be created for sale. Unfortunately it seems as if their government is turning a blind eye to this activity.

Fun fact: India used to be one of biggest suppliers of medical skeletons, supplying human bones for around 180 years after most of the west stopped the trade following the 1832 Anatomy Act.

Archaeological Human Bones.

This is a  somewhat grey area, but mostly legal as long as they look over 100 years old.

Paper work strengthens the case for owning them In certain states they can deem them not legal, but this very rarely happens. Usually as long as the human bones look old, most places won’t do anything about it.

Archaeological Indigenous Human Bones. 

Under no circumstances should these be owned, brought or sold within the public domain. Owning, buying or selling these types of remains can incur a hefty fine, or even imprisonment. Once found they must be returned to the government for burial or given back to the Indigenous people to be returned to a burial ground.

‘Grave-robbed’ Human Bones (or remains removed from any type of burial ground).

Believe it or not, this is the biggest problem we currently have in the industry. Every year hundreds of remains are taken from burial grounds where the bones are accessible. They are then sold off as archaeological pieces or antique tribal pieces. Mausoleums are the biggest target for this kind of desecration. Basically, anywhere that human bones can be stolen from, they usually are, and the most unfortunate thing is that customers are usually none the wiser.

If the price is too good to be true, it’s probably stolen.

My advice would be to always buy human skulls and bones that show signs of being ex-medical pieces to save you a possible future headache.