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Bodies the Exhibition

rivercrow

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From what I was reading, the Body Works/Nazi guy invented the process and The Body/Chinese Prisoners guy was his protege who split off to do his own thing.

LOL. This whole convo is getting crasser by the moment.

What I meant to comment before was that all exhibitions of human remains have an ethical component. Even if we don't know the person, shouldn't we respect the dead? If the person is anonymous, does that raise the stakes on how we should treat the body?

Displays of humans as objects.... It's dehumanizing by default.
 

Ivy

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Yeah, I think that NPR piece referenced their working together. I had originally heard that the Body Works guy took only volunteers (people who willed their bodies to him specifically) which I have no ethical issue with whatsoever. I'm a little more squeamish about the whole "unclaimed bodies" part of the equation, even if they weren't Chinese dissidents. Not squeamish enough to stay away, I guess.
 

rivercrow

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Yeah, I think that NPR piece referenced their working together. I had originally heard that the Body Works guy took only volunteers (people who willed their bodies to him specifically) which I have no ethical issue with whatsoever. I'm a little more squeamish about the whole "unclaimed bodies" part of the equation, even if they weren't Chinese dissidents. Not squeamish enough to stay away, I guess.

Yeah, that nails it. The Nazi show it is.

There's a brat stand down the street we can hit for lunch, too.
 

Ivy

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Yeah, that nails it. The Nazi show it is.

There's a brat stand down the street we can hit for lunch, too.

I believe the original guy used unclaimed bodies as well, but he promises he got them ethically from universities. Still, questionable ethics are better than almost certainly bad ones. :)
 

Wolf

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The Body Works guy has a disclaimer on his website about how he would never get bodies from Chinese prisons. I think there's a rivalry between him and the Bodies: The Exhibition guy. How bizarre, how bizarre.
Reminds me of this one CEO I know...
 

Wolf

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I find it strange that those with no claimed religious morality find this wrong in a distinctly religious way, while they should not care.

Why do you need to respect dead bodies? That's a totally archaic mentality.
 

proteanmix

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I find it strange that those with no claimed religious morality find this wrong in a distinctly religious way, while they should not care.

Why do you need to respect dead bodies? That's a totally archaic mentality.

You know, I'm going to agree with you. They're dead, they don't care. Funerals are for the living, not the dead.

My mother tells us to bury her in a pine box and send her flowers while she's alive. It makes so much more sense.
 

rivercrow

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I find it strange that those with no claimed religious morality find this wrong in a distinctly religious way, while they should not care.

Why do you need to respect dead bodies? That's a totally archaic mentality.

You mean me, personally? Or do you mean "you" in the generic sense?
 

rivercrow

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Generic. See post.

See post. See post stand. Stand, post, stand.

I'll take a stab.
  • We respect our dead in recognition of our mortality.
  • We respect our dead to show how we ourselves would prefer to be treated.
  • Respecting the dead deobjectifies them. Objectifying humans is a slippery slope--do we objectify only the dead ones, or extend that to the living as well? Only some of the living? Sure, it's a matter of degree.
  • Objectifying living creatures in general carries some risk. Objectify only the lower life forms? How far up can we objectify? Some argue that objectification of any living being forces us to be desensitized to our own objectification.

etc....

:D
 

starla

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I saw the one in Durham. It was interesting. People are made of steak, it seems. I highly recommend it.
 

C.J.Woolf

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There appeared to be some kind mold or mildew on one side of the brain stem, which made Toonia really sick. But I explained to her, That's what the Science Museum is for; molding young minds. It didn't seem to help.
BWAH!

I'm surprised that your compassion did not for Toonia mushroom into courage for her to continue.

I went with my friend Augustus once, and when we left, I remember chortling to him, "Boy, that was fun Gus!"
Damn you, beat me to it.

Still, it reminds me of the utilitarian's motto "WWMD?": What Would Mill Do?
 

Dansker

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There is a similar exhibition on in Sydney at present.

http://www.amazinghumanbody.com.au/

Last night there was a TV show on with Dr Gunther Von Hagens and he took the skin off a body to show how muscles and tendons in the body work, allowing us to move.

It was interesting, but I have to admit I lasted only about 30 minutes into it. There was something about seeing a body hanging there with no skin on it that made me feel a little ill.
 

Zergling

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I saw one of these body things once at science and industry. It didn't gros me out at all, it mostly looked like really good plastic models of body parts rather than the actual body parts, the only bad part was when my mind drifted to the fact that some of the people were pretty young, or in other worse than normal situations for dying.
 

rivercrow

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For some reason I have advertisements for fruit and produce running through my mind--only the ripest tomatoes, fresh off the vine....
 

Jezebel

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I went to Body Worlds a couple of years ago. My boyfriend and I were both fascinated, but one of our friends walked out halfway through the exhibit.

I also recommend the mutter museum in Philadelphia. I enjoyed it mostly for the same reasons, but it has more of a focus on oddities and medical history.
 

rivercrow

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Oh, yes. The Mutter Museum is on my short list of pilgrimage sites.
 
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