'Giant' put on display wanted burial at sea

A PROMINENT medical ethicist has called for the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the “Irish giant”, which has been displayed at the Royal College of Surgeons in London for almost 200 years, to be buried at sea.

Writing in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, Prof Len Doyal, emeritus professor of medical ethics at the University of London, and Thomas Muinzer, of the school of law at Queen's University Belfast, say it is not too late to grant Byrne's wish to be sealed in a lead coffin and buried at sea.

Byrne, born in Co Derry in 1761, suffered from the growth disorder acromegaly. Historical accounts of his size vary, but his skeleton suggests he was about 7ft 7in tall.

While still an adolescent, Byrne acquired a manager and was exhibited for money as a curiosity. With the prospect of earning more money, he travelled to London in 1780. As his condition worsened, however, his health began to deteriorate and he died there aged 22.

Aware of the interest his body would provoke in those seeking bodies for dissection, Byrne asked friends to seal his body in a lead coffin and to bury him at sea. However, as he was being transported to the English Channel, one of the friends was bribed by anatomist John Hunter and the body was replaced by heavy objects.

Hunter boiled Byrne’s body down to the skeleton and put it on display in his personal museum. Following his own death, his collection was given to the Royal College of Surgeons where it was displayed in the Hunterian Museum.

Calling for a formal burial at sea, the writers say more complete information about the acquisition of his skeleton should be provided “so that visitors can make a more informed judgment about the moral implications and appropriateness of its continued display”.