Harvard University Removes Human Skin from Book Cover After US Bridge Collapses: 2 Dead Recovered from Water

Harvard University has removed human skin from the cover of one of its books. The University Library in Cambridge (Massachusetts) announced on Wednesday (local time) that it is now conducting further research into the book and the anonymous patient whose skin was used for the cover.

They will consult with relevant authorities “to determine a final, respectful location for these human remains.”

The book made headlines in 2014 when research showed it was bound in human skin. It is a copy of “Des destinées de l’âme” (in German: On the Fate of the Soul), which French writer Arsène Houssaye first published in 1879, according to the Harvard Library.

The first owner of the book was a French doctor. He bound the book with skin “that he had taken without permission from the body of a deceased patient in the hospital where he worked,” the university library said in a statement. She said the book has been in the library’s collections since 1934 and is housed in the Houghton Library, one of the university’s many libraries.

After careful examination, it was concluded that the human remains used for the book cover no longer belong in the library collections. In justification, the library referred, among other things, to the “ethically questionable origin of the book”.

She admitted that she had made mistakes in the past in handling the book. These would have further objectified and damaged the dignity of the person concerned.

(saw/sda/dpa)