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Twenty-two-year-old Jon Ferry recently made headlines for his unique profession: he sells human bones. Ferry is the creator of JonsBones, which now has eight employees, half a million followers and over 22 million likes on TikTok, according to The Guardian.

But is selling human bones ever ethically or morally okay? 

Professor of History and Director of Public History Program Samuel Redman spoke to The Guardian on the topic, explainng how the murkiness of the bones’ origins—both in terms of the historical roots of the trade and its continued exploitation of marginalised people’s remains throughout the 20th century—is troublesome.

Redman, who is also the author of "Bone Rooms," which details how the skulls of Indigenous and non-white people were collected and used to support theories of racial categorization. Redman sees medical osteology as an extension of this wider tradition, since the remains of marginalised individuals were collected with such virulence that many of them made it into the general bone trade.

“There’s no ethical way to buy and sell human remains,” he says. “Because there’s a clear link between the legacy of this and racism and scientific racism, and colonialism.”

Continue reading the article over on The Guardian.