For subscribers
How much is a human head?
The business of chopping up cadavers is important, but too little talked about
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
There exists a surprisingly lively international trade in dead human bodies for medical dissection.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH
The Economist
A human head will set you back about US$640 (S$860). An arm is less: that costs roughly US$430. A leg, by contrast, is US$1,600; while a torso costs around US$2,000. A hand, however, is a mere US$300. Postage and packaging, as so often online, add considerably to the cost of these American imports – at times to the tune of thousands of dollars. And not wholly without reason, for transporting fresh-frozen corpses can be tricky: they need a lot of ice. They can defrost at awkward moments. They can puzzle Customs officials.
But, overall, human body parts come surprisingly cheap: getting an arm and a leg rarely costs an arm and a leg.
