The next step

Amy
When you tire of the avant garde (and will this crap ever end), go to my site and go 5 pictures down and there is a picture I added because it reminds me of you long ago with your daughter and one son.

I've written several papers on the topic of public display of human bodies in the past year. I have a visceral reaction in the case of exhibits like Bodyworld and Bodies, but should our objections extend further? Is it okay to display skeletons? Mummies? Pre-historic human remains (e.g. "bog bodies" from Britain, the Kennewick Man, the Ice Man)? Non-human hominids (e.g. Lucy)? What about the current exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, "Written in Bone"? Does it matter whether the bodies were obtained with the consent of the deceased or not? (often cited as the difference between Bodies and Bodyworld) I want to say that none of the above are okay if we're to respect the dignity of the human body, but my real distaste just doesn't extend as far mummies, etc.

And if we say that none of the above are okay, what do we do with all of the exhibits or museum collections that include human remains? Handling the remains in Bodyworlds is one thing, but do we return all the mummies to Egypt? Rebury them all? Keep them for scientific study but not display? Keep them but don't study or display them?

And don't even get me started on the fact that US law protects the dignity of some human bodies but not others. . .

Today in Porn comes to Via Media! My work is finished.

It's strange - this whole topic. I've been to many cities where the "Bodies" exhibit was being housed, and there is an impulse in me to go. I think "Oh Good! I should go!" but then I don't. Other things, other art, other music, other distractions, and off I go.

Once this has happened two or three (or more) times I begin to think something else.

"God, is that you?"

Because I'm a pretty capable and determined person and WAY more times than not I do what I want, I get what I want and I find ways to accomplish what I want.

So, why not go? I'm beginning to think it is the gentle hand of God guiding me to where I need to be. And not be.

For me. No judgment as to someone else... but I am beginning to believe that I just don't need to be there.

I saw the first Bodyworlds at the Chicago MSI. At the time, I wasn't aware of any controversy over consent and I found the exhibit to be impressive for two reason. One, there was a great deal of educational merit to the exhibit. I found the sculpture-like presentations at best unnecessary, at worst exploitative, but I remember the majority of the exhibit focusing on highlighting the various systems of the body and the effects of some diseases. Two, from a professional standpoint, I was memorized by the quality of the dissections and the skill that must have gone into performing them.

I've recently spent some time explaining basic biology to people with no biology background and I keep finding myself amazed at how little the average non-biologist knows about how their body works and pleased with the amount of enthusiasm learning about how the body works inspires. I'm convinced that if people knew more about their own biology, it'd be easier for them to understand both the health and ethical arguments surrounding life issues, such as hESCR, abortion, and hormonal contraception.

Therefore, it saddens me to see Bodyworlds further descending into sensationalism and exploitation, when the concept could have been turned towards education. Of course, there's a lot less money in education...

I never said that each and every instance of display of human remains fit neatly within my two categories. I don't understand the way some people think they have refuted an argument based on generalizations by finding an instance that doesn't fit within the generalization.

Yes, there is a somewhat spotty set of examples in the Christian tradition of using human remains (yes, instrumentalizing them) in ways that are macabre. I wouldn't say there's any one "position" on that tradition. In my opinion, the displays in the photos Ed has sent are rather equivocal -on the one hand you could look at them as an expression of decadence, and on the other hand, given the context of a chapel, you could look at them as a somewhat paradoxical sign about the vanity of ostentatious displays. The fact that they are the centerpiece in a room filled with skeletons seems to reinforce that idea, at least to me.

What they do not suggest, in my opinion, is that life itself is nothing more than a materialistic reality. In fact, I think they suggest the opposite -- by making us confront the reality of death, we are helped to contemplate spiritual realities.

There is a difference also in terms of the "found" quality of the remains in the chapel. For whatever reason, they were exhumed, yet kept a part of the place where they were buried. To me, that implies a certain kind of "belonging" or respect that does not attach to a travelling museum show.

I saw the Bodyworlds exhibition this past summer.
As I went from one display case to another I was in awe of how it says in Scripture that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It raised my heart to God in thanksgiving. I wanted to cry good kinds of tears. Maybe I'm odd. My husband certainly didn't have that response. Nor did my youngest son (he's 21).

"It's also interesting to observe how 'education', in our culture, serves as the ultimate trump card justification."

Yes. What never seems to strike people is that, as education goes, we do not just "learn" stuff. The *way* we learn is also *what* we learn.

What's interesting also is that the Chruch does not offer - at least to the extent of my knowledge - any "reason" to justify displaying the bodies, or bones, of the blessed. She does not say, "The reason we do this is becasue it deepens our understanding of the resurrection in Jesus", or any practically utilitarian reason - though of course that may well be one of the side benefits.

It has everything to do with the Incarnation. And that's not just some reason, or justification. Do people go to Body Worlds and touch items, such as rose petals, onto the corpses while praying? Do they make processions with the cadavers, invoking God? The display of the dead in the Church operates under the general supposition that those of her members who come from around to visit the relics in a shrine are part of the family and are welcome past her walls, and those who are not one of those members and who come from around to visit a shrine are like members that have not yet been fully joined into the family, which is to say, that they are, in a sense, part of the family - if potentially. Thus, all displays of the dead are, ideally, within family viewing. This is vastly different from the sense of carnival curiositas - together with an unprecedented reformulation, reconfiguration of Man, represented under all-knowing sterile lights - that makes up the show Body Worlds.

It's like the difference between The Suicide and The Martyr that G.K.C. unravels in Orthodoxy. Superficially similiar; but really, world's apart.

Sorry, but my English is not very good. This exhibition has been prohibited in Paris. Some associations have lodge a complaint and The 21 april, a judge from the Tribunal de grande instance-Louis-Marie Raingeard - prohibited this exbhibition : « The place reserved by the law to a dead body is the cimetery. The marketing of Dead bodies by the means of an exhibition is a breach of the respect due to them ». The court has strengthen the judgement of Mr Louis-Marie Ringeard, saying that there was a doubt about the bodie’s origin which could be fraudulous.
Perhaps somebody will be able to translate this article from Le Figaro :
www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2009/04/30/01011-20090430FILWWW00378-our-body-fermeture-confirmee.php
La cour d'appel de Paris a confirmé aujourd'hui l'interdiction de l'exposition anatomique "Our Body, à corps ouvert", qui présente à Paris de vrais cadavres humains. Alors qu'en première instance le juge des référés avait motivé son interdiction par le manque de décence de l'exposition, le premier président de la cour d'appel, Jean-Claude Magendie, s'est appuyé sur le doute entourant l'origine des corps.


"La société « Encore Events » (organisatrice de l'exposition, ndlr) ne rapporte pas la preuve, qui lui incombe, de l'origine licite et non frauduleuse des corps litigieux et de l'existence de consentements autorisés", est-il indiqué dans la décision de la cour d'appel.


Le 21 avril, le juge des référés du TGI de Paris, Louis-Marie Raingeard, avait ordonné la fermeture de l'exposition présentée à l'Espace 12 Madeleine. Une décision inédite. Déjà présentée à l'étranger, ainsi qu'à Lyon et à Marseille, la manifestation avait fermé ses portes le soir du 22 avril.


Le magistrat considérait d'une part que les cadavres avaient leur place au cimetière et d'autre part que la mise en scène des corps était contraire à la décence.

Pascal Bernardin, le gérant de la société « Encore Events », organisateur de la manifestation, avait interjeté appel.


Lors de l'audience d'appel, le ministère public avait implicitement demandé la confirmation de l'interdiction.