Human remains have a unique status within museum collections. They have the potential to make a contribution to the public good, through research, teaching and, in appropriate cases, display. In many instances, they also have a personal, cultural, symbolic, spiritual or religious significance to individuals and, or, groups. This places a special responsibility on those museums that hold them.
In the United Kingdom, there is a long tradition of excavating historic and prehistoric human remains, normally skeletons, studying them and including them in museum collections and displays. Human remains have also been kept as specimens in medical teaching collections and museums. Many of these are now hundreds of years old.