 Harris 's fate prompted William Wilberforce to sponsor a bill which , if passed , would have abolished the practice . But as one of its proposals would have allowed the anatomical <unk> of criminals other than murderers , the House of Lords rejected it . Though sympathetic to reform of England 's Bloody Code , Lord Chief Justice Loughborough saw no need to change the law : " Although the punishment , as a spectacle , was rather attended with circumstances of horror , likely to make a more strong impression on the <unk> than mere hanging , the effect was much the same , as in fact , no greater degree of personal pain was sustained , the criminal being always <unk> before the flames were suffered to approach the body " . 
