Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Let’s look beyond the slick public relations. There are two primary issues, the permission issue, and the human dignity issue.
Premier Exhibitions has assured us that the real unclaimed bodies were supplied by the Chinese Police, and( and this is the good news) that they are not the bodies of executed prisoners(see "China turns out mummified bodies for displays" from the New York Times 8-8-2006.). They may be the bodies of prisoners, even political prisoners, and of the poor and disenfranchised. The deceased clearly did not give permission for their bodies to appear in this traveling side show. The bodies are rented for $25 million in accordance with a recent Chinese law that prevents their sale . This avoids any issue of trafficking in body parts, which might be illegal in the United States.
Even if the deceased had given permission, is it right to flay human bodies, plasticize them, and exhibit them to the public? There is something sacred about human life, and out of respect and common decency, it is wrong to exhibit the bodies of the deceased. We have funerals and burial customs out of respect for the living as well as the deceased, and any educational benefits of these exhibits do not justify the sacrifice of human dignity.
What about the claim that there are educational benefits
including improvements in public health, and that people will be
inspired to stop smoking and overeating. Remember Juan Ponce de León
and the Foutain of Youth? Thats how credible it is. Thje bodies are 70
per cent plastic Why not dispense with using real bodies, and just
stick with plastic? It would have been just as educational. Of course,
it might be harder to sell tickets. Real objects are not needed to
educate. That’s why we have Hollywood, not to mention textbooks and
newspapers. The educational component could
have been done by other means. Real bodies are used to attract
attention, bring in the crowds, and make money.
We are more than mechanical objects. We have souls. I doubt you
will learn this when you attend these exhibitions.When we treat our
bodies as commodities, albeit fascinating commodities, we cheapen the
value of life. This is message we find when we look beyond the sales
pitch about science and education.
I hope that someone in Prague is listening. Human dignity and Human rights are in need of legal protection.
Aaron Ginsburg, Sharon MA USA
Here is a comment by someone who saw the exhibit in New York.
September 2, 2006I ventured to the Bodies: Exhibition in New York City's South Street Seaport the other day an exhibition similar to the Von Hagen Body Worlds displays, and I felt that the comparisons allowed for my thoughts on this topic. I arrived at Bodies: The Exhibition, intrigued, and curious about what exactly this exhibit was. After carefully going through the exhibit I must say that it struck me as slightly craven, and perhaps unintentionally vulgar, lacking in morality and humanity. These were people, who felt love, and pain, people with souls, with memories, and names, and yet there is no testament to that, there is no mention of lives that were lived, and whether that is due to privacy laws, or the subjects desire, it still strikes me as a rather shallow display on human beings to be totally devoid of that which is the essence of us. We are not purely mechanical devices, nuts and bolts, pieces that have functions, we are organic, we are spiritual, we are filled with a light that can not be displayed, but can at the very least be referred to. Honestly I felt that the plastination process was spoken of with more reverence than the humans encased within it.
After the exhibition I focused my thoughts, and gathered my opinions, speaking with one of the very helpful people at the information desk not ten feet from the gift shop, I tried to secure as many facts as I could, a pursuit that continued after I left leading me online, leading me here and elsewhere. I sat for a moment and reflected with my friends, and came to the startling conclusion that while this serves an educational purpose, it tours as a commercial venture, admitting students, gawkers, professionals, Children, and anyone else who can pony up the hefty admission fee, it tours as a clinical and antiseptic display of slick science seemingly without a hint that this loose collection of limbs and other assorted body parts once held blood, and dreams, and a want to be treated with respect in death as in life. It is quite possible that these people never envisioned a restless afterlife, propped up in air conditioned loft spaces posed in various degrees of athletic activity that range from throwing a baseball, to conducting a symphony, to giving a big thumbs up. Fake plastic smiles formed into fake plastic faces, an innovative polymer encasing nature's natural evaporation of that which remains. Fingers point, children to young to appreciate the gravity of what they are seeing laugh and giggle, and these sarcophaguses stand frozen, jailed. They are gone now, yes, devoid of feelings and emotions, but they should not be left without a sense of honor.
Mystery clouds that honor as much as anything else, “donated” bodies culled from the abandoned in a Chinese medical facility, a majority of men with very few females, brings pause, while whispers of past indiscretions relating to the this process involving bullet riddled bodies, and executed prisoners coupled with the realities of China's human rights violations gives out right fear. Were the “donated” informed of their dual role as learning tools and showpieces? Were there families? And exactly what right does this company, or a government that let it happen have to take abandoned bodies and utilize them in any way that they see fit? No matter their station, their lifestyle, or their economic status, these were human beings that now pose with footballs to the awe, delight, and intrigue of others, stuffed from the outside in and they deserved a choice, an outright explanation of what this journey would be for their forms, denying someone of that is nothing short of a desecration.
Jason Tabrys
Montville, NJ
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September 2, 2006
Thank you for creating this forum, I must say as time fills in behind the memory of seeing those poor people I feel genuine regret at the fact that these were thoughts that had to be reached through reflection, you wish it was instinctual, and yet it was not, I don't think an honest sense of shock, and sadness until leaving the exhibit, perhaps in part because while knowing that these were human beings, the process allows you to suspend that, allows you to view them as if they are not real, perhaps intentionally to withdraw any sense of fear, or disgust from a witness. Clearly they are not only "playing" with dead bodies, but with our psyches. I don't know if you read the articles in Discover on the topic, but to hear Von Hagen speak with the goal of accomplishing dual superstardom in the world of science and in art worries me, what gives him the right to use these bodies as canvas, as paint? The greatest gift of man is not an unending field of possibilities, it is his ability to exercise discretion, to limit his span, and do not just what can be done, but instead what should be done, I only wish Von Hagen had that capability, those who do not can veer off into madness, and that may be what were seeing. Jason Tabrys Montville, NJ
P.s.: If in anyway I can help further this cause let me know