Anatomy Act Of 1832

The anatomy act 1832 is an act of parliament of the united kingdom that gave freer licence to doctors teachers of anatomy and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies. Anatomy act 1832 stopping dead the body snatchers this act was originally designed to stop in its tracks the activities of the resurrectionists who due to a shortage of cadavers human corpses for genuine medical research were resulting via illicit means to sourcing bodies for dissection by digging up resurrecting newly buried deceased paupers bodies.

Anatomy Act Of 1832

States in subsequent years.

Anatomy act of 1832. As it became law in 1832 it remained more or less masked by the momentous moment of the reform bill. After 1832 the new middle class cultural hegemony began and the common dread of dissection was transposed on to the world of poverty. From henceforth what had once been a punishment for societies worst criminals became the fortune of some of the poorest people in society.

The anatomy act of 1832 was destined to remain in force until it was at last superseded in our own era by the human tissue act of 2004 a period of over 170 years. The act gave physicians surgeons and medical students legal access to corpses of people who had died in prison or workhouses and allowed a person to donate his own or next of kins corpse in exchange for a burial paid by the donee. After the trial of the stoke damerel grave robbers there was considerable panic in devon and families went to great expense to protect their dead.

The final fate of the poor the anatomy act of 1832 graves protected against body snatchers at buckfastleigh. 2 the murder act 1752 which limited anatomic dissection to the corpses of executed murderers. The combination of body snatchings murder and resurrection riots led to the enactment of the anatomy act in britain in 1832 and similar acts in us.

To the enactment of the anatomy act in britain in 1832 and similar acts in us. Look at the anatomy act 1832. The act was designed to subvert the market supplied by the bodysnatchers by legislating to create a free supply of corpses.

These acts which were amended and refined over the years recognized the need for bodies for medical education and research and sought to control snatching by making more bodies availableat. The first page is pictured but there is more specific information from within the act in the transcript provided. States in subsequent years.

This document is written in legal language so can be quite difficult try to separate it into blocks of information. It was enacted in response to public revulsion at the illegal trade in corpses. The anatomy act of 1832 brought the post mortem punishment of dissection for the crime of murder to an end.

The anatomy act in short was an advance clause of the 1834 poor law.

Body Snatchers The National Archives