A Media Life: Etc. blog post from a couple of weeks ago touched on the soon-to-open Gold Country Medical Museum’s display of its very old skeleton .

That resulted in a comment on the morality and legality of showing the skeleton, particularly in light of the controversy over the “Bodies: The Exhibition” display of plasticized remains and a move by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma to basically ban similar displays.

They were good points to ponder. A check of the draft legislation introduced by Ma shows that, although there are gray areas in the bill, the new museum doesn’t have any apparent legal hurdles to get over before opening with its display skeleton in early October.

The legislation’s main point is that displays like “Bodies: The Exhibition” must have a sign-off from the person whose body is being exhibited or their families. It would also prohibit, with certain exceptions, any person from displaying human remains to the public for commercial purposes without first obtaining a permit from the California Science Center.

The purpose of the new bill would be to provide for the continued use of human remains in the educational, medical and scientific communities to promote human health and safety but also prevent exploitation of human remains without basic consent.

The Gold Country Medical Museum, with an emphasis on showing how medicine was once practiced, appears to fit criteria that allows it to show an antique skeleton.

The bill requires a museum facility to be a public or private nonprofit institution that is accredited by the American Association of Museums. That’s certainly a gray area if the bill goes through but more of a technicality for unaccredited, smaller museums.

The bill also exempts display of human remains more than 80 years old. By the look of the skeleton, it would fit that criteria.

And, by the way, newspapers are off the hook in the bill from publishing a photo or video in paper or Internet form, so the photo you see with this blog post is OK.

As long as the display of the Gold Country Medical Museum’s skeleton is done in a respectful, educational manner, there doesn’t appear to be a problem legally.

Then again, what’s respectful and education to one viewer may not be for another.