Body Worlds

[Matrix_Refugee]

I find everything about Body Worlds disturbing, up to and including the doctor who created this display. Can’t think of his name, but he’s originally from Germany and it turns out his father was a Nazi guard at Buchenwald. I’m trying not to pin the sins of the father onto the son, but I can’t help thinking the apple didn’t fall from that particular tree…

 

[wabrams]

I find everything about Body Worlds disturbing, up to and including the doctor who created this display. Can’t think of his name, but he’s originally from Germany and it turns out his father was a Nazi guard at Buchenwald. I’m trying not to pin the sins of the father onto the son, but I can’t help thinking the apple didn’t fall from that particular tree…

His name is Gunther von Hagens and his father was an SS cook, stationed in Western Poland. von Hagens protested the Communist government in Eastern Germany and was arrested for it while in medical school. He was also a part of a group that opposed socialism, as well.

 

[wabrams]

I just find the idea of these exhibits really creepy. I imagine how I would feel if one of the bodies on display were one of my family members. I wouldn’t want people gawking at their remains.

That would have been your family members decision.

 

[wabrams]

**I hate to be the party pooper on this thread, but I’m a biologist and I have lots of moral and ethical problems with this exhibit. **

I’m a healthcare professional and I see nothing wrong with this. There is nothing morally or ethically wrong with itin my opinion. I think it is a personal decision whether you want to view it or not.

**First, there is significant concern that many of these bodies originated in China, which casts a pall over the claims of voluntary donation. The human rights abuses in China with their political prisoners: the executions and slave labor are staggering. **

If there former Chinese prisoners being used, then he shouldn’t be allowed to display those bodies in the US.

**Second. As was mentioned above, yes, some saints are displayed in glass sarcophagi for purposes of prayerful intercession and veneration, which is different from the PT Barnum nature of the Bodies Exhibit. **

PT Barnum? Hardly.

**Third. Those who donate their bodies to medical schools for educational purposes actually have them used to great end. They are also treated with great respect. Medical students that would commit desecratory acts are severely sanctioned. There is little probative value in these exhibits. Powerful computer programs now exist that can demonstrate all that this exhibit shows. Even if the consent of each subject were legitimate, the exhibit, outside of a graduate school-level environment does not rise to the level of benefit to humanity to warrant such treatment of the human body in death. **

There is plenty of value: it allows the public to see the human body in a way most will never see again or have the opportunity to see. These bodies on display don’t even look like cadavers med students use; they have more natural color to them.

**Fourth. Given all of the above, I am most concerned about the commodification of the human body before birth, during adult life, and after death. Exhibits such as this dull our sensibilities in this regard. While fascinating to behold, it comes at a price. **

If anything, these exhibits help us to see how God created us and made us to work.

 

[clumpofdirt]

Using dead bodies for entertainment purposes is evil. Period. Anyone who claims that the Body Worlds exhibition is being used only for educational purposes is fooling himself. It is an art exhibit, a freak-show in which people gawk at dead bodies. It is that and nothing more.

 

[Catholic90]

OLD thread. Don’t resurrect old threads.