This will be our last poll of the week for this semester. I hope for those who have participated it has helped you to think broadly about topical issues in the world around us, to build confidence in your own decision-making and to learn new perspectives from your peers. Remember you can keep using the Vx after the paper finishes and I also welcome past students getting in touch with topical issues for future polls :)
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The NZ Herald reports that 'Dozens of human corpses and organs went on display in Auckland in April as a controversial exhibition finally comes to New Zealand.
Body Worlds Vital is a travelling exhibition of human remains that have been preserved through plastination, their fluids and fats swapped with plastics.
Depending on your point of view it's either a gruesome showcase of cadavers, or an educational celebration of the human body. More than 45 million people worldwide have seen a Body Worlds exhibition.
Creative and conceptual designer Dr Angelina Whalley is married to Dr Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination in the 1970s at the University of Heidelberg to teach students about anatomy. The pair set up Body Worlds in 1997.
Viewers' reactions can range from amazement to distaste. But preconceptions tend to disappear once they get inside and most people are in awe by the end, Whalley said.
Many resolve to adopt healthier lifestyles after the experience.
'I've seen visitors ditch their cigarette packs at the sight of a smoker's lung in the exhibition. To me this is proof that I am accomplishing what I set out to do and it's very fulfilling.'
The first exhibitions weren't as well received because the bodies weren't posed; they looked a little too corpse-like for viewers. 'People were afraid of approaching them,' Whalley said. Bodies are now posed in a more 'relatable' way - many as athletes or dancers.
Organs, blood vessels and body slices are also on show. Healthy and diseased organs sit side by side, and several bodies contain orthopaedic implants. The Skin Man, one of the 25-odd bodies on display, proudly holds up his own skin to demonstrate the size of the body's largest organ.
Early critics - especially when the exhibitions first launched in Germany - felt the body should not be shown in this way, Whalley said.
Some critics have said Body Worlds objectifies dead people for commercial reasons and exploits humanity's taste for the macabre under the guise of education.'
Read the article in full here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11990466
Art or science; respect or exploitation - fine lines. What do you think?
Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pss/2252443224 Creative Commons Paul Stevenson
It is proposed that while cadavers can help advance scientific understanding of the human body, they should not be exhibited to the public