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Doodeward v Spence is a 1908 Australian high court case regarding ownership of human remains.

Background
Mr. Doodeward had exhibited a two-headed stillborn fetus, preserved in paraffin oil, at a fairground. A policeman, Spence, seized the jar and human remains and refused to return it. Mr. Doodeward brought a claim in detinue seeking its return.

Mr. Doodeward

Opinion
Starting from the usual position of the law, that nobody owns a body or body parts, the High Court announced a new rule that exercising "work and skill" to preserve the body would grant a person greater rights of possession than the usual limited right to possess a body for the purpose of burial.

Legacy
The case has been cited in the UK and in Australia, and is recognized as an integral role in the development of principles under which a person can acquire property rights in a human body. It was one of the bases for R v Kelly and Lindsay, a criminal case involving the theft of body parts by an artist.