Curious

[Brother Adam]

With our fellow phatmassers avatar on the topic, is something like this really moral?

[url="http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/ausstellung_asien.asp"]http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/pages/ausstellung_asien.asp[/url]

I know that we use cadavers for medical science, but putting human bodies on display? Should there be some kind of respect and dignity for the deceased?

[StColette]

hmm I'm not really sure. I thought it was pretty interesting when I was watching a program about this.

[Didacus]

I nthe scope of education I see no problems. How else are medical students to become surgeons if they don't have a firm look at the inside fo the human body? I understand this can be done in the context of a procedure, but i do not belive that simply learning while medical procdures are ongoing is sufficient to respond to their need of knowledge.

However though, putting bodies as display risk an entirely different realm, that of 'sensatinalism' which I believe to be totally and entirely disrespectful and inapropriate. However, to show bodies in public, (to a mature public of course), would issue no formal problems as far as I am concerned as long as the sanctity and respect of the bodies is preserved - hence, that the displays remains in the context of education.

If not in the context of education, I cannot really imagine another acceptable application.

And I stress that such displays should be viewed by 'mature' audience, capable of understanding proper respect to the human body.
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Perhaps someone who has read JP II writtings on the sanctity of life nad the human body migth shed some more formal light on the subject. It is an interesting question to say the least - though a touch morbid I admit.

[Guest T-Bone]

Are there not Churches with the walls lined with the bones and skulls of the dearly departed?

(Although this particular display doesn't look all that reverent.)

[Didacus]

[quote name='T-Bone' date='Aug 1 2005, 01:23 PM']Are there not Churches with the walls lined with the bones and skulls of the dearly departed?

(Although this particular display doesn't look all that reverent.)
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Good point T-bone!

And you also give a second purpose to the first I presented, thus it would seem to be acceptable for reverence of dearly departed, and for educational purposes (well, the educational one is just me right now, but I've never heard of the church going against it).
But as always, I may be wrong .

[Noel's angel]

is this necessary?

[Noel's angel]

by displaying them, he is opening it up to a wider audience, rather than just 'white coats'

[Guest T-Bone]

The wide audience isn't what bothers me.

On the webpage, they show one "skateboarding". Putting the bodies in "amusing" positions is irreverent and in my opinion disturbing and disgusting.

[Didacus]

[quote name='T-Bone' date='Aug 1 2005, 02:03 PM']The wide audience isn't what bothers me.

On the webpage, they show one "skateboarding".  Putting the bodies in "amusing" positions is irreverent and in my opinion disturbing and disgusting.
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Most agreed steak-man!

This defeats the sanctity of the human body in my view, and throws it into sensationalism. Not cool... not cool... not cool...

i wonder if the doctor in charge of the exposition will ever be exposed in his turn? And i wonder even more, is the position they would choose for him?



did anyone know that Napolean Bonapart's penis was removed from his body after his death? An auction that occured some years ago sold it off for several thousands of dollars. This exposition, with a skateboarding human body, is just as ridiculous as purchasing a famous person's penis to put on your desk as a book stopper.

[Brother Adam]

Right, this is what I'm talking about is the 'entertainment' value being used here. Medical purposes is one thing, even having a 'plasticized' body in a reverant 'position' such as just laying flat in order for students to learn about anatomy, I could possibly see. But to have a body of a deceased person displayed holding their own skin? That is sick.

[Noel's angel]

i wish this thread would disappear

[Brother Adam]

I don't see how this topic violates forum guidelines.

Is this person a relative of yours? If so I mean no disrespect to the doctor, but I am curious about the moral value here and the dignity, or lack of to human life and the human body.

[StColette]

While there are those who might just view these bodies for entertainment purposes. There are some who find them interesting because of their love for science. It's probably my science background which makes me find them interesting.

[Brother Adam]

Personally, I love science too, especially biology, so that is one of the main reasons I am asking this question on the moral value found here.

[Noel's angel]

Professor Gunther von Hagens:
Twenty years as an anatomist at the University of Heidelberg, I pleased the students. But over the weekend I'd get fire-fighters, nurses, first aid workers through our exhibits and I noticed they had a vacuum of knowledge of anatomy. At this time of history, lay people are very knowledgeable about the body. In the media they hear about and read about and get pictures about heart infarction, about smoker's lung but they never see how it looks in reality. This had to be changed and therefore I am here to democratise anatomy.