# So, I watched an real autopsy on TV last night. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2002, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909 "2002-11-21T10:47:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/21 "2002-11-22T05:28:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rowrrbazzle \* > **An operation is trying to benefit the person being operated on.** Debatable. Especially after watching a woman risk her life to lose that cellulite. \*\* Also, in an autopsy, they do things you would never do on a living person. \*\* Oh, now I know you haven’t seen enough of these surgeries. The doctors totally play to the cameras, making jokes, prodding away at the unconscious (or semiconscious) patient willy nilly. I don’t knwo how people participate for these things- a discount on the surgery, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/22 "2002-11-22T08:35:44Z")
Dangit…you lucky stiffs across the pond get to see an _autopsy_, and the most shocking thing we’ve had over here all season we’ve had is the _Anna Nicole_ show. :mad: Well, at least they showed that cop killer being burned alive on CNN last August. Small comfort, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/23 "2002-11-22T15:50:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cat Fight \* > \*\*Meh, big deal. At least the guy’s dead. How much creepier can it be than footage of a woman getting plastic surgery on her face, with a little camera that goes through her scalp and under the skin of her forehead (and can be seen through her face) and shows a tool that rips out little muscles that give her wrinkles. And her eyes are open the whole time, glazed over with gel. \*\* I agree. I watched that program on MTV (shame, I know) about breast reduction and augmentation, and seeing a surgeon jamming an implant into a girl’s body was really far too much for me. For some reason, there’s a difference when someone slices into a cadaver, but I haven’t figured it out yet. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/24 "2002-11-22T17:17:53Z")
Surgery is shown regulary on the cable-channel TLC’s program “The Operation.” I would have thought they’d cover autopies, too, but perhaps there is a taboo there. But I’ve seen C-sections, appendectomies (I think) and other surgery on that show. I’ve also seen liposuction, but that was in an independent film called The Girl Next Door, about a porn star. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/25 "2002-11-22T21:25:47Z")
I think this would have been neat. We’re too frightened of death and other biological realities. Anything that works in opposition to that irrational fear is a good thing, IMO. Too bad I’m in the U.S. and the most controversial thing we get to see is people eating insects for money. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > **(Cat Fight)** At least the guy’s dead. So who was the “guy,” exactly? Nobody well-known, presumably. How’d they get clearance from the family to cut into him on television? Or was it like an anonymous homeless guy who died in an alley or something? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/26 "2002-11-22T22:01:36Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by rowrrbazzle_ > An operation is trying to benefit the person being operated on. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cat Fight \* > Debatable. Especially after watching a woman risk her life to lose that cellulite. The benefit of any surgery is always open to question. It is certain, however, that an autopsy is not for the benefit of the corpse. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by rowrrbazzle_ > Also, in an autopsy, they do things you would never do on a living person. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cat Fight \* > Oh, now I know you haven’t seen enough of these surgeries. The doctors totally play to the cameras, making jokes, prodding away at the unconscious (or semiconscious) patient willy nilly. I was referring to the autopsy procedures, not the behavior of the doctors. One does not usually remove the brain of a living person. The most unsettling procedure I had in mind was the dissection of the throat and the removal of everything from the larynx to the tongue in one piece. Upon reflection, as a non-expert I suppose it’s barely possible that has been done as a last-ditch, radical option for advanced cancer of the throat. But I don’t know if that has actually ever occurred. ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/27 "2002-11-23T00:58:31Z")
Ah, but it really isn’t an autopsy without the smell! Trust me on this . . . ---
**Author:** ![The\_Clawman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@The\_Clawman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Clawman)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909/28 "2002-11-23T17:00:41Z")
> [@](#): > > So who was the “guy,” exactly? Nobody well-known, presumably. How’d they get clearance from the family to cut into him on television? Or was it like an anonymous homeless guy who died in an alley or something No, it was a 72 year-old German guy who had willed his body to the Professor. The Prof gets a fair amount of willed corpses to use in his exhibitions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-i-watched-an-real-autopsy-on-tv-last-night/137909.md?page=1)