The Controversy of Plastination

"Body Worlds" Fascinating vs. Distasteful

Body world has gain a lot of controversial throughout this issues."Body Worlds" has generated controversy for a variety of reasons since its 1996 opening in Tokyo. For starters, there is the general discomfort with human remains being displayed publicly. Many have questioned whether this kind of exhibit is sensational or in keeping with the dignity of the human person. Others are concerned about whether those who donated their bodies gave proper consent.

1.) Education or "Entertainment"

During this VO N HA G E N S is shown darting around the exhibition in the dark, illuminating the flayed and dissected faces of some of the more dramatic cadavers with a torch, while something like a horror-movie sound track thumped in the background. Peoples think that it’s evoked more the atmosphere of that kind of horror-fantasy land than that of an educational exhibition.

Sources from: http://www.koed.hu/mozaik9/james.pdf 

2.) Compromise people moral values

Source from: http://www.jmu.edu/evision/Volume7/Lloyd-Braff.pdf

Chavez argues that Body Worlds “denigrates not only the human body, but life itself,” and that the often humorous, provocative, and unceremonious stances in which the models are placed strip the bodies of their dignity posthumously. Granted, some of the pieces, such as a reclining pregnant woman with stomach open to reveal an eight-month-old fetus, seriously push the bounds of taste .Gunther von Hagens maintains that his goal is not to shock or offend. Rather, von Hagens seeks to portray the models in the most informative and visually appealing fashion, thereby creating a form of, as he calls it, “edutainment” (“Naked”).

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=20448

3.)Objectification- Pornography and the Dead

 A central problem with pornography is the way that the bodies of those who participate, even when they are consenting, are treated simply as objects, and viewed as such. There is a separation of the body from the person. Once you remove the notion of personhood from the bodies of people, you can then do what you like with them – and there lies much of the tragedy of human history. A dead person is still a person, bearing the signature of human life. So, I believe that the display of the dead currently going on in Brick Lane invites just such an objectification of persons, even though they are dead.