Comments on: Ghoulish and Educational: “Our Body” Exhibit Opens Next Weekend in Detroit http://www.bloggernews.net/13662 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:10:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: aaron ginsburg http://www.bloggernews.net/13662#comment-1106 aaron ginsburg Wed, 10 Jan 2007 13:07:54 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/13662#comment-1106 Any assurance from China that the bodies were legally obtained is meaningless. China is a dictatorship, and the rule of law is a meaningless concept there. They may be the bodies of the poor, the disenfranchised, prisoners, or even political prisons. To the Chinese government, this is just another export item. Even if there was permission granted by the deceased, that does not make the exhibit OK. These exhibits treat the bodiesof the deceased, and human beings as fascinating and complicated objects. We are more than this. We are people than live and love and laugh and cry, and we, and our remains should be treated with dignity and respect. It is not much of a stretch from objectifying us to the conclusion that if a few or a few million of those objects are hurt it is no big deal. Real bodies, or real anything is not necessary to educate. Hollywood and newspapers know this, and so should museum directors. For more information check out http://dignityinboston.googlepages.com/detroit Any assurance from China that the bodies were legally obtained is meaningless. China is a dictatorship, and the rule of law is a meaningless concept there. They may be the bodies of the poor, the disenfranchised, prisoners, or even political prisons. To the Chinese government, this is just another export item.

Even if there was permission granted by the deceased, that does not make the exhibit OK. These exhibits treat the bodiesof the deceased, and human beings as fascinating and complicated objects. We are more than this. We are people than live and love and laugh and cry, and we, and our remains should be treated with dignity and respect. It is not much of a stretch from objectifying us to the conclusion that if a few or a few million of those objects are hurt it is no big deal. Real bodies, or real anything is not necessary to educate. Hollywood and newspapers know this, and so should museum directors. For more information check out
http://dignityinboston.googlepages.com/detroit

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