history

Unnamed skeletons? US museum at center of ethical debate

BY VICTORIA LAVELLE

  • Under its new policy, the museum will only accept donations from living donors or from their descendants, to help identify them.
  • For years, a man's giant intestine was anonymously on display at a US medical museum in Philadelphia, identified only by his initials JW.  Today, the donor display for Joseph Williams depicts not only his anatomical record, but his powerful life story.
  • Under its new policy, the museum will only accept donations from living donors or from their descendants, to help identify them.
For years, a man's giant intestine was anonymously on display at a US medical museum in Philadelphia, identified only by his initials JW. 
Today, the donor display for Joseph Williams depicts not only his anatomical record, but his powerful life story.
After two years of controversy over how to ethically exhibit human remains, the Mutter Museum announced last week it has changed its policy to "contextualize" and de-anonymize its collection.
"The issue isn't whether we should or shouldn't exhibit human remains," said Sara Ray, the museum's senior director of interpretation and engagement. 
"But rather, can we do so in a way that does justice to these individuals and their stories as we trace the history of medicine, bodily diversity, and the tools and therapies developed to treat them?"
Founded in 1863 from the personal collection of local surgeon Thomas Mutter, the museum is now home to 35,000 items, including 6,000 biological specimens. Visitors can view a vast medical library with human skulls, wax moldings of skin conditions, medical tools and more. 
Under its new policy, the museum will only accept donations from living donors or from their descendants, to help identify them.
In 2020, a heart transplant recipient donated his old enlarged heart to the collection. 
The organ, the size of a soccer ball, now floats in a jar next to a collection of 139 human skulls amassed by a 19th century Austrian anatomist.

Postmortem Project

In 2023, after a change of leadership, the Mutter launched the Postmortem Project, a two-year public engagement initiative to re-examine its collection and debate the ethics of displaying human remains.
As part of the reevaluation, the museum deleted hundreds of videos from its YouTube channel, which has over 110,000 followers, as well as a digital exhibition from its website.
"That's when the controversy started," recalls the Mutter's former director Kate Quinn, who initiated the project.  "They were internal conversations that became very prominent in the public sphere after the videos were removed from YouTube."
She added: "We didn't want to dramatically change the museum. That was never the intent. The intent was to bring people into the conversation and bring us along this journey as we're trying to figure it out."
The museum's annual Halloween party, known as Mischief at the Mutter, was also cancelled.
The backlash was swift.
A former director of the museum published a scathing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, condemning "cancel culture" and accusing "a handful of woke elites" of jeopardizing the museum's future.
Soon, an activist group called Protect the Mutter, was formed. Its petition calling for Quinn's ouster garnered more than 35,000 signatures. 
"The online content (was) just being decimated, and the staff changes and events," an organizer at Protect the Mutter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Upset about the controversy, the heart transplant patient had at one point asked for his heart back before the museum made changes.

'Did these people choose to be there?'

Along the corridors of this two-story brick building, visitors can see the cast figures of two adult Siamese twins or study small fragments of Albert Einstein's brain. 
They can also learn about the lives of Ashberry, the woman with dwarfism, and Williams, whose "megacolon" was 8 feet (2.4 meters) long. A typical human colon is about 5 feet long.
Similar controversies have also rocked several other Western institutions, such as the British Museum, in recent years, which anthropologist Valerie DeLeon says is part of a broader conversation on ethics.
Museum goers "are thinking about the people that are represented in those collections. And you know, did these people choose to be there? Are they being exploited by having their skeletal remains on display for 'entertainment'?" DeLeon told AFP. 
Quinn left her post this spring and the museum's new management moved to restore 80 percent of the videos on its YouTube channel, a decision welcomed by members of Protect the Mutter.
But more difficult questions remain, like what to do with the skeleton of a 2.29-meter giant who cannot be identified.
The anonymous Protect the Mutter activist believes it should be displayed.
"Let this example of acromegaly be respectfully displayed and help future generations better understand an ongoing condition that continues to affect people every day," the activist said. 
"It becomes that acknowledgment, instead of erasing the past."
vla/bpe/md/sla

health

1 in 4 people lack access to safe drinking water: UN

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
  • More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress towards universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.
  • In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress towards universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.
The UN's health and children's agencies said a full one in four people globally were without access to safely-managed drinking water last year, with over 100 million people remaining reliant on drinking surface water -- for example from rivers, ponds and canals.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF said lagging water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services were leaving billions at greater risk of disease.
They said in a joint study that the world remain far off track to reach a target of achieving universal coverage of such services by 2030.
Instead, that goal "is increasingly out of reach", they warned.
"Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges: they are basic human rights," said the WHO's environment chief Ruediger Krech.
"We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalised communities."
The report looked at five levels of drinking water services.
Safely managed, the highest, is defined as drinking water accessible on the premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination.
The four levels below are basic (improved water taking less than 30 minutes to access), limited (improved, but taking longer), unimproved (for example, from an unprotected well or spring), and surface water.

Drinking of surface water declines

Since 2015, 961 million people have gained access to safely-managed drinking water, with coverage rising from 68 percent to 74 percent, the report said.
Of the 2.1 billion people last year still lacking safely managed drinking water services, 106 million used surface water -- a decrease of 61 million over the past decade.
The number of countries that have eliminated the use of surface water for drinking meanwhile increased from 142 in 2015 to 154 in 2024, the study said.
In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
The 28 countries where more than one in four people still lacked basic services were largely concentrated in Africa.

Goals slipping from reach

As for sanitation, 1.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation services since 2015, with coverage rising from 48 percent to 58 percent, the study found.
These are defined as improved facilities that are not shared with other households, and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated off-site.
The number of people practising open defecation has decreased by 429 million to 354 million 2024, or to four percent of the global population.
Since 2015, 1.6 billion people have gained access to basic hygiene services -- a hand washing facility with soap and water at home -- with coverage increasing from 66 percent to 80 percent, the study found.
"When children lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, their health, education, and futures are put at risk," warned Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF's director for WASH.
"These inequalities are especially stark for girls, who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional barriers during menstruation.
"At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach."
rjm/nl/giv

poverty

'Restoring dignity': Kenya slum exchange offers water for plastic

  • For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
  • Using a crutch to bear her weight, 85-year-old Molly Aluoch trudges from her mud-walled room on the outskirts of a sprawling Nairobi slum, shouldering a sack of used plastic to exchange for a shower or a safe toilet.
  • For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
Using a crutch to bear her weight, 85-year-old Molly Aluoch trudges from her mud-walled room on the outskirts of a sprawling Nairobi slum, shouldering a sack of used plastic to exchange for a shower or a safe toilet.
For the 31 years she has lived in Kibera, Kenya's largest informal settlement, water and sanitation have remained scarce and costly -- often controlled by cartels who charge residents prices beyond their means.
The Human Needs Project (HNP) seeks to mitigate that. Residents can trade discarded plastic for "green points", or credits, they can redeem for services such as drinking water, toilets, showers, laundries and even meals.
"With my green points, I can now access a comfortable and clean toilet and bathroom any time of the day," Aluoch said.
Before, she would spend 10 shillings (eight US cents) to use a toilet and another 10 for a bathroom, a significant chunk from the residents' average daily income, 200 to 400 shillings, before food and housing costs.
"It meant that without money, I would not use a toilet," she said.
Unable to use Kibera's pit latrines owing to her frailty meant she would have to resort to "unhygienic means".
Now, that money goes towards food for her three grandchildren.
Aluoch, a traditional birth attendant, is among some 100 women who collect plastics for green points, helping them access water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
She takes her plastic to a centre 200 metres (yards) from her home, where one kilogramme of recyclable plastics earns 15 green points, equivalent to 15 shillings.
The project serves some 800 residents daily, allowing them access to modern bathrooms, clean water and menstrual hygiene facilities -- services that are out of reach for many Kibera households.
Since 2015, the project has distributed more than 50 million litres (13 million gallons) of water and more than one million toilet and shower uses.
In 2024 alone, it distributed 11 million litres of water and enabled 124,000 bathroom and toilet uses.

'Days without water'

With water a scarce commodity in Kibera, it is common for vendors to create artificial shortages to inflate prices, forcing residents to pay more than 10 times the normal price.
The city's water service charges between $0.60 and $0.70 per cubic metre for connected households, but by comparison, Kibera residents have to stump up as much as $8 to $19 for the same amount.
"Getting water was hard. We could go several days without water," said Magret John, 50, a mother of three.
Today, her reality is different.
"The water point is at my doorstep. The supply is steady and the water is clean. All I need is to collect plastics, get points, redeem and get water," she said.
John, who has lived in Kibera for nine years, says the project has been a game changer, especially for women and girls.
"Access to proper sanitation services guarantees women and girls their dignity during menstruation."
Now, with 10 water points spread across Kibera -- pulled from a borehole with a daily capacity of half a million litres -- NHP shields some residents from informal vendors' exploitative pricing.
The project's dual mission is to meet basic human needs while tackling Kibera's mounting waste problem.
HNP's director of strategic partnerships Peter Muthaura said it helps to improve health and the daily living conditions in Kibera.
"When people cannot access dignified toilets and bathrooms, the environment bears the impact," he said.
It also fosters development, he said.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Kibera residents delivered two tonnes of recyclable plastic, with around 250 women directly engaged in daily collection and delivery.
For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
"My prayer is that this project spreads to every corner of Kibera, and reaches thousands of women whose dignity has been robbed by a lack of sanitation services," she said.
str-rbu/rmb/jhb

technology

AI helps UK woman rediscover lost voice after 25 years

BY HELEN ROWE

  • According to the UK's Motor Neurone Disease Association, eight in 10 sufferers endure voice difficulties after diagnosis. 
  • A British woman suffering from motor neurone disease who lost her ability to speak is once again talking in her own voice thanks to artificial intelligence and a barely audible eight-second clip from an old home video.
  • According to the UK's Motor Neurone Disease Association, eight in 10 sufferers endure voice difficulties after diagnosis. 
A British woman suffering from motor neurone disease who lost her ability to speak is once again talking in her own voice thanks to artificial intelligence and a barely audible eight-second clip from an old home video.
Sarah Ezekiel, an artist, was left without the use of her voice after she was diagnosed at the age of 34 with MND while pregnant with her second child 25 years ago.
The condition, which progressively damages parts of the nervous system, can cause weakness of the tongue, mouth and throat muscles, leading some sufferers to lose their speech completely.
In the years after her diagnosis Ezekiel, from north London, was able to use a computer and voice generating technology to help her communicate, albeit in a voice that sounded nothing like her own.
She was also able to continue her career as an artist using a computer cursor to create her images.  
But her two children, Aviva and Eric, grew up never knowing how their mother had once spoken.
In recent years, experts have increasingly been able to use technology to create computerised versions of a person's original voice.
But the technique has generally required long and good quality recordings, and even then tended to produce voices that while sounding something like the sufferer were "very flat and monotone", said Simon Poole of the UK medical communication company Smartbox.
Poole told AFP the firm had originally asked Ezekiel for an hour's worth of audio.
People who are expected to lose their ability to speak due to conditions like MND are currently encouraged to record their voice as soon as possible as a way of preserving their "identity" alongside their ability to communicate.
But in the pre-smartphone era, having suitable recordings to draw upon was far less common.
When Ezekiel could locate only one very short and poor quality clip, Poole said his "heart sank".

'Nearly cried'

The clip from a 1990s home video was just eight seconds long, muffled and with background noise from a television.
Poole turned to technology developed by New York-based AI voice experts ElevenLabs that can produce not only a voice based on very little but can also make it sound more like a real human being.
He used one AI tool to isolate a voice sample from the clip and a second tool -- trained on real voices to fill the gaps -- to produce the final sound.
The result, to Ezekiel's delight, was very close to her original, complete with her London accent and the slight lisp that she had once hated.
"I sent samples to her and she wrote an email back to me saying she nearly cried when she heard it," Poole said.
"She said she played it to a friend who knew her from before she lost her voice and it was like having her own voice back," he added.
According to the UK's Motor Neurone Disease Association, eight in 10 sufferers endure voice difficulties after diagnosis. 
But the timing, pitch and tone of current computer generated voices "may be quite robotic".
"The real advance with this new AI technology is the voices are really human and expressive, and they just really bring that humanity back into the voice that previously sounded a bit computerised," Poole said.
Personalising a voice was a way of preserving someone's "identity"," he added.
"Particularly if you acquire a condition later in life, and you lost your voice, being able to speak using your original voice is really quite important, rather than using some off the shelf voice," he said.
har/jkb/js

virus

Canada measles cases pass 4,500, highest count in Americas

  • The most populous province of Ontario, which has about 16 million people, has recorded 2,366 cases, according to federal government data updated this week, which put the national case count at 4,638. 
  • Canada's measles case count has passed 4,500, with the western province of Alberta -- which has about five million people -- recording more cases this year than the United States, figures updated Thursday showed. 
  • The most populous province of Ontario, which has about 16 million people, has recorded 2,366 cases, according to federal government data updated this week, which put the national case count at 4,638. 
Canada's measles case count has passed 4,500, with the western province of Alberta -- which has about five million people -- recording more cases this year than the United States, figures updated Thursday showed. 
World Health Organization data released this month show Canada accounts for about half of all the confirmed measles cases across the Americas region this year. 
Canada officially eradicated measles in 1998, but the virus has stormed back, particularly among unvaccinated members of certain Mennonite Christian communities. 
The most populous province of Ontario, which has about 16 million people, has recorded 2,366 cases, according to federal government data updated this week, which put the national case count at 4,638. 
Alberta's government, which releases its weekly figures on Thursdays, said it had registered 1,790 cases, making it the hardest-hit area per capita. 
The United States, confronting its worst measles epidemic in 30 years, has confirmed 1,375 cases, the Centers for Disease Control said this week. 
The Pan American Health Organization, WHO's regional office, said this month that 71 percent of confirmed cases occurred in unvaccinated people, with an additional 18 percent among people whose vaccination status was not known. 
Canadian experts have pointed to several factors driving the outbreak, including the proliferation of vaccine misinformation.
Canadian physicians have criticized US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent decades spreading false information about vaccines. 
But the bulk of the Canadian epidemic has occurred among Anabaptist Christian communities -- of whom Mennonites are one -- where vaccine hesitancy is historic. 
The beginning of the outbreak has been linked to a Mennonite wedding in the eastern province of New Brunswick. 
Outside of Ontario and Alberta, which have larger Mennonite communities, cases have been isolated, with British Columbia the third-hardest hit province with 190 cases. 
The only suspected measles-related death in Canada during the 2025 outbreak was that of a newborn baby whose mother was unvaccinated, but officials noted the baby was born pre-term and had other medical conditions. 
bs/aha

health

US Supreme Court allows cuts in NIH diversity research grants

  • The Trump administration has targeted nearly $800 million in NIH research funding for elimination as part of its campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
  • A divided US Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light on Thursday to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants linked to diversity initiatives.
  • The Trump administration has targeted nearly $800 million in NIH research funding for elimination as part of its campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
A divided US Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light on Thursday to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants linked to diversity initiatives.
A federal judge in Massachusetts had blocked the planned cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in June, saying they amounted to racial discrimination and LGBTQ prejudice.
The Trump administration has targeted nearly $800 million in NIH research funding for elimination as part of its campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In a 5-4 vote, the conservative-majority Supreme Court allowed the cuts to go ahead while legal challenges continue in lower courts.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, sided with the three liberal justices on the top court in the minority.
The targeted diversity grants represent only a fraction of the more than $10 billion in NIH research and contracts that have been put on the chopping block since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Other affected projects include studies on the health effects of global warming, Alzheimer's disease and cancer.
Trump has launched a sweeping overhaul of the US scientific establishment in his second term -- slashing funding, attacking universities, and overseeing mass layoffs of scientists across federal agencies.
cl/st