July 27, 2023
The Washington Post interviewed College and Museum leadership as well as a variety of other individuals regarding the ethical review of the Mütter. Part of the article is provided below and can be fully accessed .
This spring, as the first step in an ethical review of the Mütter, museum leadership decided to take down a popular YouTube series featuring stories and human remains from the collection. It also convened a panel of experts to determine whether the residents had consented to spend eternity on autoplay, and to investigate what was known about their lives, so their stories could be properly contextualized.
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“We are not planning to destroy or dismantle or take anything apart,” Quinn says. “We’re just looking to strengthen” the Mütter.
Right now, the review is focused on the YouTube videos: cataloguing which ones contain human remains, whether donors consented to appearing in videos and whether the videos are accurate, Quinn says. Approximately 100 videos have already been republished.
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“We have no plans to take anything down,” Quinn says. “In fact, what we’re looking to do is to engage the public coming in into some of these more difficult conversations about the collection.”
Quinn and Irons say they plan to host focus groups of people of color, people with disabilities and museum members. They also hope to institute a QR-code system that would allow visitors to give feedback in real time about whether they believe exhibitions are respectful and whether remains should be displayed.