Posted on 02/15/2008 6:29:40 PM PST by JACKRUSSELL
And it seems Americans will buy anything, whether it is saturated with poison, put together by virtual slaves, or murdered.
China has already admitted using fetuses and executed prisoner parts for make-up, so I just assumed these were political prisoners in these exhibits. One of them was in Pittsburgh recently. Ghoulish.
I agree with you. I wouldn’t go see this nor would I take a child.
Some of the cadavers had been dissected by various students in certain classes, before they were used in the anatomy classes.
I can assure you that there is a world of difference between looking at plastic models and studying from real cadavers.
Yes, it's gross and fascinating at the same time. One particular class (which I did not take) entailed very tedious, specific regional dissection of a cadaver for one whole semester. I was once in that lab at the same time they were dissecting. Fascinating and gross... I could not go eat fried chicken after viewing and smelling that class.
It may sound sacrilegious to some, but I for one would not want to be worked on by a doctor who had not studied actual cadavers.
And yes, I agree with the objections to plastinated bodies which had been obtained from Chinese prisoners (without their consent)
IIRC, there was some sort of project which consisted of a lot of CT scan cross-sections of both a male and female body. It's on the Internet somewhere. I think that the guy may have been a U.S. prisoner, but it's my understanding that he voluntarily donated his body for this project. Maybe that's apocryphal, but it's what I heard. The woman also voluntarily donated her body to this project.
From the Body Worlds website:
Body Donation for Plastination
All anatomical specimens on display in the BODY WORLDS exhibitions are authentic. They belonged to people who declared during their lifetime that their bodies should be made available after their deaths for the qualification of physicians and the instruction of laypersons. Many donors underscore that by donating their body, they want to be useful to others even after their death. Their selfless donations allow us to gain unique insights into human bodies, which have thus far been reserved for physicians at best. Therefore, we wish to thank the living and deceased body donors.
If humans really did volunteer for the process then, I think it would be interesting to see.
However, my husband has a problem with it.
It was at the Tech Center in San Jose, and my husband did not want to go, and did not want me to take our kids.
It’ll be an incredibly fascinating show....during the Rapture.
Oh, I didn’t mean to dispute the China connection, which is bad enough. But I doubt any of the others (if any actually are not from Chinese prisons) meant for their bodies to be displayed in such a manner at $25 a peep.
Disgraceful all around, imho.
Ghouls
“Donate” but maybe a deal could have been worked out to provide a royalty to a charity group for the use of the body perpetually on tour. I am not sure a person’s family would ever want to see them as such nor get a royalty check from the “Tour”.
Cult of death stuff.
Should this really be shown to kids?
Source, please?
Yeah, it's always comforting to know that after their organs were removed one by one, that their bodies could be sold to some freak who thinks if it's in a "museum" it's not an abomination.
Yeah, it's always comforting to know that after their organs were removed one by one, that their bodies could be sold to some freak who thinks if it's in a "museum" it's not an abomination.
I went with a group who were (myself as well) in an Educational Program involving health care.
I personally left the exhibit with 2 minds.
On the one hand it was fascinating and enlightening. On the other it was a bit macabre and disturbing.
Some of the displays were really strange as in the saggitudinal (sp) cuts, while others such as the coal miner lungs contrasted with the smoking and non smoking lung were simply amazing.
If anything ever made me glad I don't smoke, it was those lungs. Yuck. And the coal miner's lungs... They pay a high price to bring us coal.
I know what you mean about disturbing, in a way. My dad had died 13 months earlier, so he was on my mind prominently, especially when I saw the Alzheimer's brain. Finally, after so many years, being able to see what had taken my dad away was a very powerful moment for me. I know that what I found meaningful could have been disturbing or upsetting to others, though.
I paid a lot of attention to what other people were doing that day. We had a young baby & so we took frequent breaks to sit and hold the baby. The reactions that other people were having was interesting. No one was disrespectful. Many people, even kids, seemed to be speechless.
I think it is worth mentioning is that in times past, people had a very different view of bodies than we seem to now, and that the direct use of bodies in art is in no way new.
Europe has I-don't-know-how-many ossuaries, some hundreds of years old. They are full of human bones that have been used to make chandeliers, candle holders, altars, furniture, you name it. It sort of bothers me that people think Body Worlds is somehow a "new low" or even somehow "new". It's neither.
Most modern people live so far removed from ever seeing visceral things; rarely touching their own dead, leaving caring for the sick to professionals.
I think it becomes easy to disregard what we never see as not important or not worthy of protecting. For that reason alone (but for me personally, many others), I thought that Body Worlds was worthwhile.
I've never heard that! Are you kidding?
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