Exploitation of corpses shows bad taste

The ending is death. We know it’s there, and we know it’s real. The comfort we get from death is that our loved ones are at peace. Their bodies are at rest and undisturbed.

If only it was still that simple.

An article in Saturday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram featured an art exhibit in Germany called Koerperwelten or “Body Worlds.” The exhibit poses preserved corpses and body parts for public display. The bodies are immersed in acetone chilled to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, and all the water is removed from the cells. The water is replaced by molten plastic that hardens and preserves the body.

Dr. Gunther Von Hagens, a German anatomist and the mind behind the exhibit, said in the Star-Telegram the display shows “the beautiful interior of the body.” More precisely, the “beautiful interior” of a man riding a horse or a woman reclining, showing an 8-month-old fetus in her belly.

Showing off death in the name of art.

Von Hagens said the point of the exhibit is to show the frailty of human bodies and to teach people to take better care of themselves. While that may be true, there must have been a better way of teaching people than preserving their bodies, posing them and labeling it art.

There must be a better way than showing a skinless corpse running with its muscles tearing away from the body. There must be a better way than posing a body at a desk, brain exposed, within touching distance of viewers. There must be a better way than enclosing a row of babies and fetuses in a glass case.

But it’s just art, right?

It’s just art that, according to the article, has taken in $1.4 million and had 3,000 people sign up to donate bodies. I can understand donating money to art, but bodies? It crosses the line to tastelessness.

The bodies donated to this exhibit can easily be used for other causes. They can go to medical schools and hospitals for research. Doctors and students can learn from example. Wouldn’t a body donated to science be more helpful than one preserved, pointed and stared at?

And then there is the Body Farm, located down the road from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Bodies are donated and allowed to decompose in various environments. The information gathered helps police investigate murders. In the end, the bodies have helped police solve murders and bring closure to families.

Maybe it’s because I write obituaries and deal with funeral homes and grieving families on a regular basis. Maybe it’s because I just have a respect for death. Either way, the exhibit and the idea behind it offends me. But maybe it’s just me.

Death on display. I guess that’s entertainment.

Copy Desk Chief Jacque Petersell is a sophomore news-editorial journalism major from Houston.
She can be reached at (j.s.petersell@student.tcu.edu).

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