Murder for Money

“The discovery in 1828 that two drunken Irishmen had, within the space of a few months, committed sixteen murders in [Edinburgh], and had sold the bodies of all their victims to a leading anatomist for dissection, shocked the people of Scotland as no other series of crimes has ever done. . . . The city was in a state of constant terror. Children were told to keep off the streets, and families stayed indoors from long before sunset. At no time in living memory had Edinburgh’s locksmiths done such a roaring trade. Even tough laboring men took to coming home from work in groups rather than on their own. . . .” So writes Donald A. Low in The Regency Underworld.

In the early 1800’s, British surgical science was still in its infancy and, by law, only bodies of executed criminals could be used for dissection. The demand for research cadavers far outstripped the supply. To meet this need, “resurrectionists” illegally dug up freshly buried bodies out of cemeteries and sold them to anatomical schools, a practice known and condoned by surgeons.

In 1827, the unscrupulously enterprising William Burke and William Hare sold for dissection the corpse of a fellow lodger who had died of natural causes. Encouraged by the profit they made and the assurance by the anatomy school of more money for more corpses, they lured 16 more people to their deaths before they were discovered.

Does this MO sound familiar? It should.

Abortion proponents constantly assert that abortion is offered as a necessary service to women. However, the CMP video “Human Capital: Episode 3” shows abortionists making their procedure decisions according to orders for fetal organs.

Read the rest at BreakPoint Blog.

A Time to Die #Review

My thin rectangular Clock sits on the carved shelf across the room, clicking its red digital numbers—red like blood. Today marks the first day of my last year alive.

ATimetoDieThis is part of the opening of A Time to Die, a work of dystopian Christian fiction by Nadine Brandes.

Nadine Brandes has accomplished what many authors attempt, but few succeed: causing me to expect one development, then delivering another. A few climactic scenes kept me truly uncertain as to the outcome. I’ll refrain from spoilers. However, I will say this: Dire outcomes are believable because main characters do experience wretched events. This book isn’t recommended for those squeamish about severe injuries and blood, though such events are rare. Their descriptions aren’t gratuitous or overly gruesome; they serve a purpose within the narrative.

Read the whole review at BreakPoint.