HC Deb 17 November 1927 vol 210 c1103
33. Colonel DAY

asked the Minister of Health whether he has received any protest from boards of guardians in reply to the letter issued by his Department asking the boards of guardians to hand over the bodies of paupers who die in their institutions, and who are without friends and relatives, to the medical schools for anatomical purposes; and will he state whether poor and friendless persons are given an opportunity of specifying before they die what shall be done with their bodies after death?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

Some boards of guardians have declined to exercise their powers under the Anatomy Acts, but I am not aware that any protest has been received. As regards the second part of the question, any inmate of an institution may express a desire that his body shall be interred without anatomical examination, and Section 7 of the Anatomy Act, 1832, provides that such a wish shall be respected.

Colonel DAY

Can the right hon. Gentleman say if after the examinations the bodies are interred in consecrated ground?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

Oh, yes.