The Digital Opaque: Refusing the Biomedical Object

This essay examines the extractive practices employed in biomedical research to reconsider how librarians, archivists, and knowledge professionals engage with the unethical materials found in their collections. We anchor this work in refusal, refusing to see human remains as research objects. This essay creates frameworks for scholars working with archival or historical materials obtained through violent, deceitful, or otherwise unethical means.