EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 26, 1886_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I herewith return Senate bill No. 349, entitled "An act for the
promotion of anatomical science and to prevent the desecration of
graves," without my approval.
The purpose of this bill is to permit the delivery of certain dead
bodies to the medical colleges located in the District of Columbia for
dissection.
Such disposition of the bodies of unknown and pauper dead is only
excused by the necessity of acquiring by this means proper and useful
anatomical knowledge, and the laws by which it is permitted should, in
deference to a decent and universal sentiment, carefully guard against
abuse and needless offense.
The measure under consideration does not with sufficient care specify
and limit the officers and the parties who it is proposed to invest
with discretion in the disposition of dead bodies remaining in the
institutions and places mentioned in the bill. The second section
indicates an intention to prevent the use of said bodies for any other
purpose than the promotion of anatomical and surgical knowledge within
the District of Columbia, and to secure after such use the decent burial
of the remains. It declares that a bond shall be given providing for the
performance of these conditions. But instead of exacting the bond from
the medical colleges, to which alone, by the terms of the first section,
the bodies are to be delivered, such bond is required of "every
physician or surgeon before receiving such dead body."
The bill also provides that a relative by blood or marriage, or a
friend, may, within forty-eight hours after death, demand that any body
be buried, upon satisfying "the authorities" of the relationship claimed
to the deceased.
The "authorities" to be thus satisfied should be clearly defined, and
the determination of a question so important should be left with those
only who will perform this duty with proper care and consideration.