Medical museums display infant remains from eugenics-era acquisitions: systemic erasure of colonial violence and racial science
Original framing: “Medical museums often display infant remains – how they were acquired was frequently harrowing and involved eugenic thinking” — The Conversation - Global
The display of infant remains is part of a 19th- and 20th-century eugenics project that pathologized Black, Indigenous, and disabled bodies to justify racial hierarchies. This practice was institutionalized in medical schools across Europe and North America, often using remains from poorhouses, prisons, and colonial subjects. Similar patterns emerged in apartheid South Africa, where Black bodies were used in medical research to 'prove' racial inferiority. The continuity of these practices into the 21st century—such as the 2021 discovery of unethically sourced cadavers in U.S. medical schools—shows how historical violence persists.
The display of infant remains in medical museums is not an isolated ethical lapse but a symptom of a 200-year-old system where racialized science, colonial extraction, and institutional power converge.
This system was built on the dehumanization of Black, Indigenous, and disabled bodies, with medical institutions acting as both beneficiaries and enforcers of these hierarchies. The erasure of Indigenous knowledge—where ancestral remains are sacred entities requiring ceremonial return—further exposes the colonial epistemology underpinning these practices. Yet, the persistence of these collections into the 21st century reveals how institutions adapt rather than dismantle oppressive structures, as seen in the ongoing resistance to NAGPRA and similar laws. The solution lies in centering Indigenous and marginalized voices in repatriation and education, dismantling the power structures that enable extraction, and reimagining knowledge systems where ethics and sovereignty precede scientific authority. This is not just about returning remains; it is about dismantling the colonial logic that produced them in the first place.