Museum exhibit of real human bodies

[kevb]

The bodies are preserved and displayed without their skin so you can see all the inner details, with certain layers removed so all the systems are visible. They are even posed in everyday activities. All different ages and sexes. I know it’s meant to be educational, but this just seems wrong to me. Is this just a slap in the face to the dignity of these souls and the sacredness of their bodies? I’m not sure what to think.

bodyworlds.com/en/pages/pressemeldungen_Philadelphia.asp

 

[AlanFromWichita]

At first glance, it doesn’t particularly bother me.

When I was little, I remember seeing slices of human parts in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It didn’t seem nearly as human, because they were slices between glass and not the whole body.

People donate their bodies to science on a regular basis, and as far as I know the Church does not have a problem with that. One man told me they would take his wife’s body for a year and then return whatever remains there might be for burial. The difference here is that instead of medical students, the display is public.

One thing I think is instructive is the display on smoker’s lung v non-smoker lung. When I used to work some in a morgue (normally to do photographic darkroom work with the pathologist) I saw how blatantly obvious it is, and how different the lungs are. Perhaps these models will get a message through to some would-be smokers.

I read about the plastic process a few years ago. It seems like a good tool for teaching anatomy because there is no issue with refrigeration and preservation, not to mention the smell. Plus, things stay where they used to be and don’t move around as they “change” post mortem or as they cut away parts. In essence, it is the first time we are able to see things “as they would be” preserved in their positions.

The thing that seems strange, though, is if this process goes like many others and becomes affordable and commercial, then I imagine people who decide to keep their relatives’ remains not in an urn, but right there in the living room standing there watching everybody. This just seems like a creepy prospect. I’m just not sure what it would be like to go visit mom and there is dad, standing there smiling at us but unable to hear me or speak to me. That said, I’m strangely intrigued by it. I think it is weird like that because it deals with the issue of immortality – taking a biodegradable body and making it last essentially indefinitely. I’d hate to think we’d end up with unwanted “human remains” around, smiling even as they’re loaded into a truck to move from one house to another. :whacky:

Maybe they don’t smile.

Alan

 

[Magicsilence]

not so creepy.

But defnitely an issue about respecting the human body.

 

[Cupofkindness]

I’m all for text book explanations of these sorts of things. From what I saw on the link, these figures are gross looking. God wrapped us up in skin for a reason. This is another reason I would never, ever donate my body to science. You just don’t know where you’ll end up! Your body may or may not be respected as the temple of the Holy Spirit that it once was by the people who are handling your body.

 

[kevb]

Cupofkindness:

I’m all for text book explanations of these sorts of things. From what I saw on the link, these figures are gross looking. God wrapped us up in skin for a reason. This is another reason I would never, ever donate my body to science. You just don’t know where you’ll end up! Your body may or may not be respected as the temple of the Holy Spirit that it once was by the people who are handling your body.

Yeah, I wonder if these people would still have donated their body to science if they knew they would end up preserved as a grotesque statue in a museum.

 

[Cupofkindness]

AlanFromWichita:

At first glance, it doesn’t particularly bother me.

When I was little, I remember seeing slices of human parts in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. It didn’t seem nearly as human, because they were slices between glass and not the whole body.

People donate their bodies to science on a regular basis, and as far as I know the Church does not have a problem with that. One man told me they would take his wife’s body for a year and then return whatever remains there might be for burial. The difference here is that instead of medical students, the display is public.

One thing I think is instructive is the display on smoker’s lung v non-smoker lung. When I used to work some in a morgue (normally to do photographic darkroom work with the pathologist) I saw how blatantly obvious it is, and how different the lungs are. Perhaps these models will get a message through to some would-be smokers.

I read about the plastic process a few years ago. It seems like a good tool for teaching anatomy because there is no issue with refrigeration and preservation, not to mention the smell. Plus, things stay where they used to be and don’t move around as they “change” post mortem or as they cut away parts. In essence, it is the first time we are able to see things “as they would be” preserved in their positions.

The thing that seems strange, though, is if this process goes like many others and becomes affordable and commercial, then I imagine people who decide to keep their relatives’ remains not in an urn, but right there in the living room standing there watching everybody. This just seems like a creepy prospect. I’m just not sure what it would be like to go visit mom and there is dad, standing there smiling at us but unable to hear me or speak to me. That said, I’m strangely intrigued by it. I think it is weird like that because it deals with the issue of immortality – taking a biodegradable body and making it last essentially indefinitely. I’d hate to think we’d end up with unwanted “human remains” around, smiling even as they’re loaded into a truck to move from one house to another. :whacky:

Maybe they don’t smile.

Alan

Alan:

I think your observations are excellent and I agree about the smoker’s lung, or perhaps the heart of an athlete vs. the heart of an obese person.

I looked at the link again, wondering if something was wrong with me for not wanting to pay to see this exhibit. Nothing’s wrong with me. I think this is almost a form of voyeurism or going to a circus to see the sideshow “freaks.” It is just too strange to be very educational to most people. It reduces dead people to bones and muscles. What’s obviously missing is mention of the sacredness of the soul that animated that once living body. So even taking a dead body and posing it in active forms still leaves you looking at a dead body, except that it’s eerie. You couldn’t pay me to view this exhibit.

 

[aurora77]

I think this exhibit helps to show the amazing complexity of the human body. Maybe some people would have wierd voyeuristic fixations when seeing this, but for the most part it seems educational to me. I really don’t see much difference between this and the cadavers that are used in pre-med and med school anatomy programs.

 

[Steven_Merten]

Hello kevb,

For a minuet there I thought you were talking about the Vatican. I have heard there are many bodies preserved and on display there. I thought I even heard that Pope John Paul II will be preserved and displayed there. Wearing his skin and clothes though.

For the sake of medicine I do think that it is a very good idea to have bodies displayed for learning. Better to practice heart surgery on a cadaver than on a body with a pulse.

I do not see a problem with displaying the human body.

 

[kevb]

Steven Merten:

Hello kevb,

For a minuet there I thought you were talking about the Vatican. I have heard there are many bodies preserved and on display there. I thought I even heard that Pope John Paul II will be preserved and displayed there. Wearing his skin and clothes though.

For the sake of medicine I do think that it is a very good idea to have bodies displayed for learning. Better to practice heart surgery on a cadaver than on a body with a pulse.

I do not see a problem with displaying the human body.

I know that they do display a lot of “incorruptable” saints throughout Europe. Maybe it was just the initial shock of seeing skinless people that got to me. I guess I just don’t have the stomach for it that others (like med students) do.
Which reminds me about a college buddy of mine who is now a surgeon and told me he’s actually had religious experiences during certain procedures. Just working with the inner complexities of the body led him to believe without a doubt that such an amazing creation could not possibly come from any kind of random circumstances. He said he never ceases to be amazed at how perfectly designed it all is…

 

[cheddarsox]

I have had religious experiences when doing similar things. The body is a wonder!

I have read that the people preserved for the exhibit donated their bodies for that purpose.

We have put mummies of humans in museums for years. I never thought anything of it, then, one day looking at an unwrapped mummy, it hit me. Those people took great pains to practice their religious belief, to prepare their bodies for eternity, and we went and dug them up and put them on display next to necklaces and pot shards. And it has been done with full knowledge that they took pains to protect their bodies from just such abuse.

I think we are more morally culpable for digging up buried remains, disrespecting beliefs and cultures than for displaying the bodies that the people donated exactly for that purpose.

cheddar