I was all set to drag Himself to Body Worlds in Charlotte this morning, but when I got out of the shower he said, “I don’t want to go.” He read the Wikipedia article and tells me that the provenance of some of the bodies are in doubt, that some of them were acquired “no questions asked” from China and may be those of political prisoners, etc. However, I read that the California Science Center set up a commission and agreed that the bodies on display were gathered ethically.
Himself won’t go unless he feels it’s not unethical to give these people our money. (Well, I guess I wouldn’t either, but I really want to.) We’ve decided to examine the evidence and if we feel it’s correct we’ll go next Sunday.
We are not really concerned about whether plasticizing corpses is disrespectful or anything else - theses are issues we knew about before this morning. I am also aware that the exhibit reinforces certain gender stereotypes; again, that’s not the information I’m looking for. Just cold hard facts about whether supporting Body Worlds is supporting shady behavior.
I believe that Body Worlds has been cleared of ethical issues, but a similar exhibition from a different company, BODIES…The Exhibition, is the one that has real provenance problems. Its creators admit getting bodies from China, and that consent was not obtained for all of them. A quick read of the Wiki entry I’ve linked to should make it clear that this is the one with real problems, not Body Worlds.
I saw Body Worlds in Philadelphia, and it’s amazing. Don’t miss it.
(In 2000, before Dr. Von Hagens had put together the full exhibitions, I was at a conference where he showed an early sample of his plastination process. I was fascinated, but my first reaction is that it would never work as an exhibit: most people would be completely grossed out and no one would go. Another brilliant prediction from commasense.)