My mother is getting ready to have a hip replacement surgery and would
like to keep her old hip, properly stored in some sort of somthing. 
The doctors said however that this wasn't legal because it was
considered a biohazard.  I recall from a recent news article in
Lawerence KS that a kid had to have his foot amputated and kept it in
a bucket on his front porch.  This is a little strange but obviously
legal if they let him keep it.

My question is is there a law that prohibits one from keeping their
own body parts and if so what is it?  Also would this fall under state
or federal jurisdiction.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 20 Aug 2005 10:30 PDT

You mentioned Kansas. Are you asking about the state law in Kansas
also (or elsewhere)? I know of no such law. Otherwise we'd all be in
the pen for saving locks of hair and baby teeth in our children's
scrapbooks. So how do you suggest we go about proving a negative? In
other words, what PROOF will you accept that convinces you there is no
such law?

tutuzdad-ga

Joebob,

  I don't know about a "law" per se, but hospitals generally do not
release amputated parts.This would fall under OSHA or JCAHO
regulations, and probably state law/Fed. law.  Body parts are, as you
mentioned, a biohazard. Once they are removed, they are sent to the
lab, if any analysis is needed, then to the incinerator. The hospital
assumes responsibiilty for the "part" and if a third party acquired a
disease from an infected part, the hospital could be held liable.

  I have, on rare occasion seen gallstones returned to a patient,
after they were disinfected. A person keeping his amputated leg in a
buvket on the front porch sounds like an urban legend. The body part
would decompose and reek, becoming even more potentially pathogenic!

  Besides, you might be surprised to find your mother's excised hip in pieces!

The entire hip is not removed. Here is a step by step procedure,
containing graphic pictures:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.memdoc.com/cm/nov_hip_11-resected-head.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.memdoc.com/cm/pfsp_nov_startpage/pfsp_nov_hip_repl_04.htm%3Fsid%3D%253CWEM%2520REQUEST.sid%253E&h=205&w=273&sz=43&tbnid=yojSHzXIDTUJ:&tbnh=81&tbnw=108&hl=en&ei=CdkHQ7P2HILGJK2M4CM&sig2=G-nbcULXvirzg-1sFUF1Bw&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dexcised%2Bhip%2Bbone%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D
%26c2coff%3D1%26sa%3DG

Remember that during the hip replacement procedure, the human hip is
cut into several pieces to be removed. It is not a clean procedure
resulting in a removed hip that can be played with like a hip of beef
or leg of lamb.

The result will most likely be many small pieces of bone in a jar. Not
something very useful or sentimental.

Ed.