So, I came across this article HERE (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/07/02/body.exhibit.ap/index.html). Go read it.

I'd seen this man's work before on the Discovery channel- I find it amazing.

The process in the article is outlined in depth HERE (http://www.univie.ac.at/anatomie2/about.html) All in all, it is a pretty amazing process. It is also new- nothing like this has been done before. The ancient Egyptians would have had a hard on for this process.


However, as noted in the article, there is some outrage about his subject matter. It seems that they think it violates the sanctity of the human body, or that is was "amoral, and insulting to the dead". I disagree- I think the real reason it disturbs people is that a visual representation of death, up close and personal is more than some people can handle.

Why?
The burial customs of religions/cultures differ wildly. What is commonplace in one area (such as throwing bodies into the Ganges and letting them float off to rot) is unthinkable in others. The practice of embalming the dead that is common in the US offends the sensibilities of the Jewish and Muslim people.

Obviously, the religious aspect of this could be covered in depth, but I'm not trying to take it there. Suffice it to say that religion will impact what someone considers "acceptable" in terms of burial practice.

I'm more interested in:
- Everyone's thoughts on the process
- If it is a method anyone here might consider for post-mortem treatment.
- If the depiction of death is what might cause the most discomfort to most people

Its pretty strange to me but to each his own.

Seems sort of like a cross between the nudity and violence taboos that most cultures have at least one of. Probably another reason it's so controversial. No matter where you come from, it probably seems wrongish somehow.

w... t... f... some people ill never understand

What's not to understand?

"Intended to teach people about human skeletal, cardiovascular and other systems, the final exhibit includes 25 bodies that have undergone a process called 'plastination' in which body fluids are replaced with clear, pliable plastic."

If these displays were put up but no one was told they were actual cadavers would it be as controversial?

Probably not...because people would assume they were simply models and therefore most religious objections would not apply. It is the fact these are cadavers and not just constructs that is freaking people out.

Personally I find the exhibit distasteful. The place to learn about anatomy is in medical school, not a public exhibit. It seems to me to pander to the worst morbidity of people (ooh! look at the dead guys!) and not to a genuine desire to learn anatomy.

Personally I find the exhibit distasteful. The place to learn about anatomy is in medical school, not a public exhibit. It seems to me to pander to the worst morbidity of people (ooh! look at the dead guys!) and not to a genuine desire to learn anatomy. I suppose then that it is just as distasteful to have cross-sectioned human bodies on exhibit at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. I thought they were pretty neat but then again I was only 10.

Personally I find the exhibit distasteful. The place to learn about anatomy is in medical school, not a public exhibit. It seems to me to pander to the worst morbidity of people (ooh! look at the dead guys!) and not to a genuine desire to learn anatomy.
There have been plenty of displays in science and natural history museums that expose the inner workings of the human body.

When I was a child I remember going to an exhibit at the Benjamin Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and part of the tour was an enourmous model of the human heart designed to be walked through (all 4 chambers) with placards and pictures of the real thing scattered throughout.

Why should only medical students be permitted to learn about human anatomy in detail? You seem to imply that anyone interested learning about the human body that isn't a medical student has baser motives rather than a genuine interest.

So what makes it distasteful to you? Simply the knowledge that the displays are from actual human bodies?

I think anything that raises scientific awareness in the general public is good. However, information on the exhibit should make it clear from the start that these are cadavers; it shouldn't be a fact thrown at people halfway through the tour. It's terrific that people donate their bodies for such efforts; perhaps it will encourage viewers to donate their blood and bodies for more applied medical purposes (or maybe it will have the opposite effect).

Morbid? I suppose. Useful? I think so. Distasteful? Only if brought to your doorstep at dinnertime. But then, I spent years pulling parts out of dead bodies; it doesn't have much affect on me.

Hmm, I dunno. That 1 picture really bothers me for some reason. Not sure I'd want to see this if I was in the area.

What I find distasteful is the treatment of the bodies as a sideshow exhibit. It's obviously meant as crude "entertainment" masquerading as public education. Any educational value would have been maintained with models....the fact he is using real dead folks is a marketing ploy, nothing else. THAT is what I find distasteful.

the inventor of this exibition and holder of the patent for this plastination technique (special conservation technique for human bodies) is a very controlversal person in the german public.

because he does body plastination on a industry level with a factory in china and sells the plastinated corpses worldwide mainly to scientific organizations, universitys, schools etc. Its a million$$$ biz for him beside these exhibitions.

He was running into big trouble when german journalists found out that he was (ab)using corpses from executed chinese prisoners to keep his business running while he was short on fresh corpses. Executed chinese were cheap to aquire and available in large amounts , he had some dodgy deal with the local police there.

he was also often in the news because he used corpses of people which never gave their OK during their livetime nor their families to be plastinated.