12 September 2016

BBC Three will be airing the documentary Obesity: The Post Mortem on Tuesday 13 September featuring College Fellow Dr Mike Osborn

BBC Three will be showing the documentary Obesity: The Post Mortem on Tuesday 13 September from 10am on BBC IPlayer. The BBC commissioned the programme to investigate the impact obesity has on the human body by filming a post-mortem. The post-mortem has been conducted by College Fellow Dr Mike Osborn.

The 60 minute programme will show a post-mortem on a female donor who weighed nearly 17 stone. It will also feature young contributors who talk about how biology, psychology and food have contributed to making them overweight, and what it means to live with the day-to-day reality of obesity.

BBC Three programmes are made for a 16-34 year old audience.

Viewers will see how the body was transported 5,000 miles from Long Beach California, to The Royal College of Surgeons where the post-mortem was undertaken.

Issues of consent, privacy and dignity were of paramount importance to all those involved in the production of the programme. Guidance was sought and provided by the Human Tissue Authority at the very earliest stages of production to establish how donor consent applies to the filming of a post-mortem. Confirmation was also sought from medical authorities including the General Medical Council to ensure all applicable guidelines were followed, and from the body donation organisation in the US to ensure that the consent given by a donor would cover the proposed filming. 

Information about post-mortems for friends and relatives