Monday, October 20, 2008
The BODY
This past weekend we, (Gary and I and three other couples) went to the body show, bodyworlds.com. It was a display of human bodies that have been plasticized so you can view how the human body looks. It was very informative. If you log onto their website, you can see a glimpse of what we saw. The human body is very complex. We were able to see blood vessels and tendons--everything. But the most impressive and humbling was the babies. In jars were the first stages, at nine weeks you could see the arms, hands, legs, backbone, eyes, the heart. I was blow away at the detail already at this stage. One interesting fact was the heart is the first organ formed and its the last organ to die. From there they the had babies from 18 weeks up for our viewing. They were so little and perfect. I wanted to hold one. There was definitely a reverance that accompanied their viewing. In fact, I think that is why after this display the sign up to be a donor was next; they must know seeing those precious babies did something to the heart.
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5 comments:
This looks really interesting. I bet it is useful for medical education.
That is so interesting. I saw a documentary on the acquiring of the bodies and the process which they would go through to display the image that they were desiring to show. One guy who was the owner of one of these companies became quite emotional about it.
It is a huge money maker.
I did find it very interesting when they interviewed a priest. He commented about how he was literally shocked by the response of the public in as much as they had lost all respect for the dead. How desensitized our society currently has become.
Most of the bodies were prisoners. And their families have no idea that their kindred is one of the displays.
It sounds like you learned a lot about the body.
The argument about losing respect for the dead has been around for a long time. The Native Americans felt that way about their burial grounds and other interest groups felt that way about public display of mummies that were removed from their tombs.
Are these exhibits for entertainment or for education?
From what I understand this is to educate, that is how I felt. I do believe that money is being made, however it was interesting to see the body in this manner. Suposedly these bodies are to be donated with full consent. I'm sure that issue will be agrued. What's interesting is they had a donation table and many people were interested in being donors. The idea of preserving your body and having it displayed for others was of interest to some. I did watch a youtube clip on this german man and he did want to be able to sell the slices of bodies, that was weird to me, I can see medical fields be interested but not your every day people. Interesting stuff for sure. One side note...I didn't ever get the feeling of disrespect while view these bodies, it was more of marvel.
I think that the human body is one of God's greatest blessings to us. We are expected to take the best care of it and have great reverence for it. I believe seeing the process is wonderful if it is done with reverence. I think you were inspired as you witnessed the great creation of our God.
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