Archbishop says no to 'Bodies' exhibit

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I had been wondering if the exhibit was an injury to human dignity - if it was the right way to treat corpses.
The Archdiocese sent school administrators an e-mail last Friday quoting the Rev. Daniel Pilarczyk, Archbishop of Cincinnati, saying, “I do not believe that this exhibit is an appropriate destination for field trips by our Catholic schools.”
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But he also stopped short of telling people not to go to the exhibit, which opens Friday at the Cincinnati Museum Center: “If parents, as the primary educators of their children, believe that it has educational value, they should be the ones to take their children to see it.”
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The 15,000-square-foot exhibit features 20 human cadavers, preserved by a process called polymer preservation and shown in various poses. The exhibit’s goal, according to Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, is to show the inner workings of the human body. The exhibit also includes about 250 preserved body parts, giving close-up views of the organs that keep the body breathing, digesting, reproducing, thinking and, in general, living.
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news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080128/ENT/301280061/-1/CINCI
 
Dale_M said:
I had been wondering if the exhibit was an injury to human dignity - if it was the right way to treat corpses.

news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080128/ENT/301280061/-1/CINCI
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According to programs like this (BodyWorks came through here in the past two years), the people will their bodies to science. They are not forced into it. This is their way of giving back after death. Everything is kept confidential about who they are. Nobody forced the people to sign their body over, so I think the Bishop is overreacting.
 
There is an exhibit that goes around called Bodies where basically all of them came from China, and it is suspected that the bodies came from people who had not willed their bodies but had been prisoners (possibly political) and other such people. There is also an exhibit called BodyWorld that is made up of only bodies willed by either the person or the family themselves. When I saw the BodyWorld 3 exhibit it, it had documents posted where it had been endorsed by the Vatican.
 
I saw the BodyWorlds exhibit too and I thought it was very cool. I didn’t see anything wrong or degrading about it.

In Christ,
Rand
 
Personally I think it is offensive because the body is part of a person, people are not spirits hovering around in brains, and then the body dies and the person has no relation to it any more like a chick to an eggshell. That’s why bodies need to be treated with respect, and part of the reason why Catholics believe in the resurrection of the body.
 
based on what i read about the exhibit and the manner in which it was advertised, it seemed more sensationalistic and exploitative than educational, so i decided not to go. plus the fact that the cadavers came from a third world country with a poor human rights record elevated the “creep factor” for me.
 
I’m with the Archbishop on this one. I don’t think we need to display the bodies of those who have died in this sensational manner…permission or not. There are many other ways for those who have an interest in A&P to learn. This is my personal opinion only.

The fact that the Archbishop deferred to the parents shows his great respect for parent’s responsibilities for their children and respect for the young minds as well. Schools should not be making that decision for individual children…it is rightfully with the parents.

A Bishop who watches out for the wellbeing of his flock…what a concept! God bless him, our dear Bishop and all those who take their role seriously.
 
bellesjoy said:
I’m with the Archbishop on this one. I don’t think we need to display the bodies of those who have died in this sensational manner…permission or not. There are many other ways for those who have an interest in A&P to learn. This is my personal opinion only.
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I disagree. With the study of A&P, you don’t get to see the way that the muscles work and are formed in the same way you do with the BodyWorlds exhibit. Because the bodies are set up in various athletic stances and poses (all respectfully done), you get to see exactly how the muscles are contracted in that specific stance.

In Christ,
Rand
 
tomarin said:
based on what i read about the exhibit and the manner in which it was advertised, it seemed more sensationalistic and exploitative than educational, so i decided not to go. plus the fact that the cadavers came from a third world country with a poor human rights record elevated the “creep factor” for me.
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Yeah that’s a different exhibit than the BodyWorlds exhibit. The BodyWorlds exhibit is very much for educational purposes.
 
One of these types of exhibits came through Sacramento. Right before it came through one of the cable channels (TLC?) had a program about Americans going overseas, esp. to China, for transplants.

The Chinese generally believe that the body must be intact for a person to enter the afterlife. As a result, China has difficulty finding organs for their citizens that need them.

Yet, they have plenty of organs for foreigners. It is highly suspected that the organs are taken from executed prisoners (China executes thousands of prisoners each year) and the documents are forged.

When the documentation that “bodies” types of exhibits have on the bodies were examined, the documentation on the bodies from China was sketchy and questionable. Whereas, the bodies from the EU are extensively and clearly documented, including forms signed by the donors with detailed information how the body or body parts would be displayed (forms were pages long).

As the exhibit that came through Sacramento were “donated” bodies from China, I refused to go as I could not be confident that the individuals and/or their families truly consented to the use of their body. I am willing to go to an exhibit with bodies from the EU.

The exhibit that the Archbishop is referring to has “unclaimed” Chinese bodies. I question how many of these bodies are executed prisoners that the families were unaware that their relative had been executed.
 
I saw one of the BodyWorlds exhibits in London a few years ago and agree that it was much more tasteful than some similar exhibits. The displays of the diseased organs sliced into thin cross sections was really fascinating and the poses of the cadavers allowed us to see the unbelievable intricacies of the human body.

There was a display created by injecting the circulatory system with a red dyed plastic, then the rest of the cadaver was removed, leaving only the blood vessels and heart encased in a large clear prism. It was the most amazing thing to see. I saw it as a homage to God’s creation and how intricate it is.

There was a curtained off section with warnings showing fetal development and also a woman who died during her 8th month of pregnancy. Although I was initially “creeped out” by the infant cadavers, I realized that this sort of thing might serve to show people how “human” we are, even in the earliest stages of development.

There were a few young punk-type folks in their 20s there with leather, chains, tons of odd piercings, etc and even THEY were quiet and hushed and respectful in the exhibit. I was kind of impressed that they were so awed by it.
 
I am from this Archdiocese and I do agree with the Archbishop in saying that the Catholic Schools do not make field trips to this exhibit. He did say that we as parents can take our children if we deem this is appropriate for them to see this.
 
Cobbfmly said:
The Chinese generally believe that the body must be intact for a person to enter the afterlife.
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I think this was true for ethnic Chinease (Han) until the mid 20th century. Then communist influence quickly eliminated most funeral rites and burial was replaced by cremation. Indo china, and its many religons, has traditionally seen the body as temporal and places much more emphasis on the spirit than the body.

Sorry in advance for the above digression.

I support the Archbishop in that he leaves the choice about the value of such an exhibit to parents. I hope we can all agree that field trips are not part of the core curriculum, at least not in K-12. He isn’t denying children a necessary element of their education, just using his authority to decide about a minor detail.

Nohome
 
pprimeau1976 said:
I see a major lack of clarity on this issue. What is the difference between a museum displaying these plasticated bodies and a museum displaying an Egyptian mummy? Essentially, I see no difference and wonder why the objections are not consistent across the board.
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Personaly I’m uncomfortable paying a murderer to see his victim. Same thing here, except that it’s a an entire Country with human rights abuses and an entire tour bus of aledged victims.
Critics counter that given China’s history of human rights abuses, the bodies may well be those of political prisoners or mental patients who were starved or tortured to death, and that the Chinese government more than likely knows exactly who they are.
On the otherhand, non-murderer sponsored events like Mummies and BodyWorks seem ok to me. 👍
 
I have seen Body Worlds 2 which is different than Body Works. I do not know about Body Works. If there is doubt on how the bodies were attained I can understand not going to this event. I can also understand not taking school children to this type of event.

I can only speak of the Body Worlds 2 that I went to and took my daughter who was 11 yrs old. Most of the exhibition was very educational if you are interested in learning about the muscles and different systems of the body. There were complete bodies and there were different parts like the lungs, the heart, reproductive systems, etc. It was very good if you are interested in these things or if you are a health care professional as I am.

They state that people donate their bodies for this purpose and if they do it of their own free and the bodies are treated with respect and properly disposed of after there is no need for the exhibit I think that is satisfactory. I myself have worked in a college lab with cadavers and we disposed of the remains respectfully and they would be cremated and either returned to the family or buried when we were finished with them. I think this could be done in a respectful manner.

After saying all that I will say part of Body World 2 was something I found offensive and disrespectful. The vast majority was educational, but at the end of the exhibit there were bodies that were cut up to look like pieces of art IMHO. I did not like that part of it and when I realized it was like that I told my daughter I thought it was disrepectful because people should not be turned into artwork (or something to that effect).

And also while I was viewing the entire exhibition I said prayers for the souls of these departed humans and told my daughter we should pray for the repose of their souls.
 
countertenor said:
There is an exhibit that goes around called Bodies where basically all of them came from China, and it is suspected that the bodies came from people who had not willed their bodies but had been prisoners (possibly political) and other such people.
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This is the exhibit that is in Cincinnati. There have been other protests to the display.
 
I saw the exhibit on Saturday in Cincinnati. It was very crowded–people of all ages. I found it quite respectful–and breathtaking to actually see how complex our bodies are!

There was a fetal development section at the very end of the exhibit–talk about an powerful message of when life begins! There were warnings about this room–you could skip it, if you wished to do so. [Side note: I think the ‘warning’ helped bring people in more so than keep them out!] My friend and I entered this area–it was packed with families oohing and aahing at what they were seeing. After seeing the intricacies of human development in the womb, there can be no question whatsoever (IMHO!) of when life begins.

I do not have a medical background, so I was almost numb with information!

I do think that the Archbishop was correct in his statement about the Catholic schools not attending the exhibit as a field trip. This is an exhibit that families should view** together **and discuss what they see. 🙂
 
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