Is it legal to buy human bones online?

LUBBOCK, Texas ( KLBK ) — Recent news out of New Mexico involving the discovery of human skulls and other bone fragments brings to light a unique question: Can you legally buy human bones online?

On Tuesday, the Lea County Sheriff's Office said it was investigating human remains found in Jal, New Mexico that were believed to linked to a missing persons case from 2019. The narrative shifted Wednesday when authorities stated the skulls were possibly purchased online over the course of several years.

Local authorities confirmed it is possible to buy real human bones online. And according to a couple of sources, it is perfectly legal.

Human skulls found in Lea County may have been purchased online

As reported by National Geographic , there's no federal law prohibiting trade and ownership of human remains (other than those from Native Americans).

The Bone Room , a natural history store that follows California State Law, U.S. Federal Law and International Treaties regarding the possession and sale of bones, noted that Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Minnesota have independent state laws prohibiting the import or export of human remains across their state lines.

Only one company in the U.S., Skulls Unlimited, is legally cleaning human heads that come straight from donors, according to National Geographic. The company sells these donor skulls only to bona fide doctors, nurses, dentists, anthropologists and people with valid scientific or medical reasons to have them.

But they do sell antique skulls to prospective buyers.

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Previously, users of eBay were allowed to buy and sell human bones and other types of human remains, however, the auction website changed its policy around 2016 and currently, according to the eBay human body parts policy , which now indicates that only "items containing human scalp hair (such as lockets or wigs)" are allowed to be sold.

The website also states that it doesn't even allow used funeral items, like urns, which may have come into contact with human remains.

In short, although there are no laws against possessing human bones at the federal level, this does not mean such laws do not exist in other countries or at a local level.