Facebook launches an investigation into the sale of human remains in private groups

An undercover investigation was conducted by Live Science into a number of communities trading in policy-violating items. The investigation has been able to track remains as they went up for sale over a period of 10 months.

Live Science found that there were a variety of different remains that showed up on the website with a price, including those belonging to children, infants, and fetuses. It was reported that in one group, a buyer allegedly asked for "children's skeletal pieces or organ."

One case involved a person offering the skeletal remains of a "young teenager" for $1,000, claiming that it was sourced from a medical school in Philadelphia.

Another Facebook user claimed to be offering the remains of six-year-old from the 1700s at roughly $12,350. The seller qualified the remains by saying it was "not a grave robbery."

And another, based in Washington state, claimed to be selling a human skull at $550, saying that it had been stolen from catacombs in Sousse, Tunisia.

Live Science said that it had also discovered that fetal remains were also offered for sale, preserved in jars of liquid. The investigation also revealed what appeared to be a preserved fetus listed at $2,350, with the description: "retired medical specimen."

Facebook policy does not allow the selling of human body parts, describing that listings on the site may not "promote the buying or selling of human body parts or fluids." It adds that this includes urine, blood, organs, body parts, human tissue, or teeth.

A PR representative at Facebook said that this was being investigated.

Ryan Seidemann and Christine Halling, of the Office of Louisiana's Attorney General's Civil Division, told Live Science: "The legal and ethical implications are clear in our opinion. There is no need or justification for any private individual to own any human remains, whether they are the remains of adults or children."

The trading of human bones has thrived on social media in recent years because the US law is inconsistent when it comes to the sale of these items, according to experts.

Tanya Marsh, a professor at Wake Forest University, specializing in funeral and cemetery law, shared with Vice in 2018 that the regulations surrounding the issue are vague because they do not fit nicely into the definition of "people or property" within the US legal system.