The act of using parts of deceased humans for medical purposes is defined by the term “medical cannibalism” or “corpse medicine”. Blood transfusions and organ transplants are modern forms of “corpse medicine”. In the past, parts of corpses were thought to be able to cure nearly everything from a nosebleed to epilepsy and as such were used in various medical traditions.
It is interesting to note that this wasn’t the case in Babylonian medicine, except for human bones which were a very rare ingredient in some recipes and sometimes used in rituals.
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Marius Hoppe
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