The Chacarita Bone Collectors

On a typical autumn day in March, first year student, Martín Gimenez*, began his medical career at a cemetery, looking for a human skeleton. Gingerly stepping between empty graves and discarded bones, he made his way to the creepy underbelly of Argentina’s largest cemetery, situated in the sprawling district of Chacarita. There he was led into room to critically examine the piles of bones that lay within dusty boxes. After making his selection, Martín gathered them into a bag ample enough to house an entire skeleton, and took them home to be assembled on his balcony.

Though it sounds like a proposal for a horror film, Martín’s story is a common tale for medical students in Buenos Aires.

Medical students in need

Martín’s graveyard mission was borne out of academic necessity. He claims that while the universities provide cadavers for practical analyses, a large proportion of the medical degrees are taught through anatomical descriptions. Examiners often expect critical detail about the bones or about the way joints function – not particularly helpful if the student only has a certain amount of contact time with a real body.

He states that it is therefore vital for medical students to have access to a skeleton of their own, and that good exam grades depend on it. “If you didn’t have one at home you would never figure out what the descriptions were talking about. It’s too complicated,” Martín notes. “You could get away with not having the whole skeleton, but not the skull.”

While it is possible to buy fake bones from universities, they are generally seen to be inadequate replacements for the real thing, and are expensive at $200 for a cranium. Ricardo Suarez, the city’s Cemetery Director of Planning and Registry, recognises the importance of real bones for the student’s studies. “Plastic bones just aren’t the same,” he confirms.

Some medical students are fortunate enough to inherit the skeletons their parents or grandparents used in their own studies. However, for the majority of medical students who do not have this luxury – generally those coming from a non-medical background – there are only two options: either splash out on fake bones from the university or go and collect a skeleton for free from Chacarita Cemetery.

Striking a Deal

Several decades ago, on a date that with a shrug and a hand gesture was undisclosed by Ricardo, an agreement was reached between the cemetery and the government of Buenos Aires. Argentine legislation states that after six years the families of the deceased have to start paying for the burial plot. At this point what is left of the decomposed bodies that have no known family or whose fees cannot be paid, are cremated or, in some cases, the skeleton is dismantled and stored. Thus any student enrolled in a medical course in the city is entitled to go to the cemetery and collect a real skeleton for their own home research.

This is not only common practise; it is encouraged by the members of the faculty. Teaching assistants covertly nudge the students in the right direction, and internet forums and facebook groups have been formed solely for the purpose of providing more information about where to acquire the bones. The process is fairly simple for the medical students: they apply for an official document through the medical faculty, take it to the cemetery offices, and wait patiently to retrieve the bones. The cemetery’s mortician has thus become a household name among students, responsible for dealing out the bones of unknown bodies or those whose families can no longer afford to pay.

Under the Table

The process is, surprisingly, legal. The bones that are resurfaced are distributed to the students equally. They make arrangements to collect them, which may involve sorting through various storage containers. However, the bones are often damaged, somewhat understandably having been buried and then exhumed. For studies this becomes problematic: Martín notes that if the cranium is “cracked or fractured then a medical student may miss something important.”

Here is where the already perplexing plot becomes uncomfortably twisted. In order to procure the best set of bones, or an undamaged cranium, Martín claims that offering a bribe is the usual method. Slipping the mortician a few pesos grants a student unlimited access to the best osseous matter the cemetery has to offer.

He retells his own experience as though it were a drug deal. After handing over his documentation and ordering the bones, he decided to put into practice the rumours he had heard. He casually slipped the mortician a $50 note in one slick motion. This Bond-like transaction was evidently all that was needed to signal that Martín was after a skull, undamaged and in perfect condition. He returned a few days later to collect his goods, and was welcomed back warmly by the man in charge. “This mafia style boss told me that I had made the mortician’s day,” he laughs.

Ushered down into the chambers of the cemetery his friends were led through one door, and Martín through another. His $50 had bought him a ticket to the “good room” where the mortician had assembled a special selection of bones.

Until this payment is made, the deal is above board. Martín says he thinks this practise is as unfair as the high price of the fake bones sold by the university. However, as those in charge are evidently not profiting hugely the exchange of money appears to be largely overlooked. I asked Ricardo if money was exchanged. “I don’t know, not officially,” he replied, smiling.

Providing a Service

The medical students are kept in the dark about where the bodies they examine come from. The cadavers that are used in the anatomy classes are donated, but what of the skeletons they acquire themselves? A huge section of Chacarita Cemetery has been abandoned and left to ruin, the bodies presumably unearthed after their free allotted time period. The nameless and anonymous – the homeless with no known family or money to maintain their plot – are dug up by grave diggers. Officially they should then be cremated, but clearly in some cases the bodies excavated from the graves are then given, or sold, for medical purposes.

Despite the usual disrespectful jibes you may expect from young medical students working with dead bodies, the general attitude of is that of appreciation. Martín comments that the students recognise that the knowledge they acquire from the bodies is incredibly valuable. “Homeless people are providing a service,” he states. “They are basically teaching us medicine.”

*Name changed to protect the student’s identity. Any matching details are completely coincidental.