Yesterday I went with my six year-old daughter to the Body Worlds Exhibit at the science centre. I wasn't concerned that she would be frightened. She enjoys learning about anatomy and has several books on the subject. Granted, the pictures are mainly cartoons but I showed her a picture of what we would see at the exhibit and she said she would be okay with it. She's a smart girl (yeah, I'm biased) and already knows the names of many organs and bones.
You may not want to read this if you are eating. The exhibit itself was fascinating in an educational yet sideshow freak way. The bodies are submitted to a revolutionary polymer preservation method called Plastination. They can then be cut up or sliced and posed any way revealing as much or little as desired. The skull can be sliced off to show the brain or any of the muscles and bones cut away to be able to see inner organs. The bodies can also be frozen and sliced into thick or paper thin sheets. There were also many individual organs and bones on display in cases. Some had diseases and some showed the consequences of bad lifestyle choices. My daughter now knows exactly why smoking is a bad idea. She also got to hold an actual human lung. Very cool. She was well behaved and very interested the whole time but I'm not sure that she has actually wrapped her brain around the fact that they were actual dead bodies. But maybe she did.
This display has also caused much controversy. Mostly the religious types crying desecration and that the human body should be treated with more respect. I'll agree that on some level it is a little disturbing just because you are dealing with death so close and personally. But every one of those people donated their bodies to that purpose and more are signing up everyday. It's what they WANTED to happen to them after death. It's their CHOICE. End of discussion. People donate their bodies to help further science and education, all the power to them. Would I do it? Not sure, not that I'll have any further need for my body once it's expired, but it's weird to think that people would be gawking at my innards (and outards) long after I'm gone. Something to think about.
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