,
6 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Wait... the Imperial War Museum was storing the remains of six Holocaust victims? What possible justification would there be for that?
2/ I'm confused about Imperial War Museum's explanation for why it knowingly held the remains of 6 Holocaust victims for 21 years. Having received them in 1997, it just decided it was 'no longer appropriate' to hold them. Why was it ever appropriate? thejc.com/news/uk-news/u… 
3/ It says it has "authority under Human Tissue Act 2004" to hold the remains. When I read s.1 of the Act I initially assumed you needed consent to hold the remains but in fact as an HTA report on the IWM says, donations before 2006 didn't require consent hta.gov.uk/sites/default/…
4/ But if you want to hold human remains under the HTA 2004 it must be for an authorised purpose. The only relevant one, I think, is "public display". Were the remains on display?
5/ This is not something I have looked into in detail but from a perusal of Human Tissues Act 2004 it seems that IWM's only legal reason to keep remains was for public display. If they never intended (as I imagine is the case) to display the remains, how were they held lawfully?
6/ They actually didn't want the remains and were sent them anyway. This suggests they weren't ever intended for public display. So were the IWM holding them unlawfully for 21 years?
