Controversial "public" autopsy goes ahead.
Nov 21, 2002 at 5:20 PM Post #2 of 26
Geeeeezzzzz.....
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Nov 21, 2002 at 5:46 PM Post #3 of 26
i believe many major universities and medical schools work with cadavers. i'm sure there are plenty with large room and over a hundred students watching.. so i guess my point is: who gives a ****?
 
Nov 21, 2002 at 5:51 PM Post #4 of 26
Students watching fine ... but the public can just drop by and see it is a different story ... I wonder if they gave out barf bags
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OkOk I'm ********ting now ...
 
Nov 21, 2002 at 7:17 PM Post #6 of 26
Quote:

There were gasps from the audience as he cut into the head of the body and sawed through the skull with a hacksaw.

After opening the chest, Prof Von Hagens stuck his hand in deep and, with the help of a colleague, pulled up a huge portion of innards.

He declared: "I have liberated the lungs and the heart."



Is this going to be available on video?
Is a soundtrack available?
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Nov 21, 2002 at 10:58 PM Post #9 of 26
Medical students (I am an MD) do work in rooms with several hundred people, usually in groups of 4 or so, disecting cadavers; there is typically a tremendous amount of respect shown to the bodies of the people who donated themselves to science so that the education of those who would like to help the living can continue.

On the other hand, people sell their bodies while they are alive all the time, and no one seems to mind...what's the difference if they are dead?

I think the issue comes down to one of respect. Spectacularization of this type tends to remind me of Howard Stern--sure, he is shocking, but who really cares?

Does an autopsy, made spectacular, made into a freak show, degrade the respect that the lay public have for medicine, for life, or for privacy? I think that this is the real question. It isn't so much, "Is it legal?" It's much more one of responsibility, "Is it right?"

As much as I think this is just some jerk trying to make a buck off the rubbernecking public, the fact that the donor was willing be viewed in this way and the people were willing to view it goes a long way...

I just find it disrespectful to make it a spectator sport. If he had done it for FREE with the intention of EDUCATING, I might have a different reaction...

Then again, my reaction is just that, a reaction.
 
Nov 22, 2002 at 12:27 AM Post #11 of 26
Quote:

Originally posted by dgs
I just find it disrespectful to make it a spectator sport. If he had done it for FREE with the intention of EDUCATING, I might have a different reaction...

Then again, my reaction is just that, a reaction.


last time i checked, medical school wasn't free.. although i'm sure it is very educational.
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europe has **** conventions where they break gang-bang world records and have public sex while being videotaped and the audience gets to watch, etc. boxing matches, a couple of idiots get paid $90 million a piece to beat on each other and then fall down in round four. michael jackson concerts, pay $2500 to see a nose fly off into the crowd and then the pop star quickly returns with a new one glued on. people watching an autopsy isn't exactly on the top of my list of things that should be stopped.

i would much rather pay to see an autopsy than the things listed above. i tend to have odd tastes and opinions though. however, any idiot can adore those things, but it takes quite a mind to get into medical school and i seem to be somewhere in the middle (bending more towards "idiot" of course).
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Nov 22, 2002 at 7:05 AM Post #12 of 26
I think that it's wrong to dictate public taste, unless an activity causes physical injury to others. If adults want to watch an autopsy, and I think that many would find human anatomy and physiology fascinating, then why prohibit it. After all, real surgeries are routinely shown on cable TV.
 
Nov 22, 2002 at 11:08 AM Post #14 of 26
Eeek. Speaking as a medical student with an anatomy degree I think that it's a terrible idea for a TV show. Fair enough, the family of the dead man consented, but there is such a thing as respect for the dead. I have a deep suspicion of Gunter von Hagens, his methods and his motivations. I think it's disgusting that people should be paying to watch an autopsy that has been glorified and portrayed in such a gratuitous manner. It does cheapen such things, and death needs to retain its dignity. There is a reason that we moved on from public dissection, I think it's called 'civilisation'. Personally, I believe that anatomical dissection is an unpleasant thing, but very necessary for the proper study of the human body for medical practitioners. I'm not saying that such knowledge should be witheld from the layperson, I think that the means to acquire it on a direct basis should be restricted to some degree.

Oh, by the way, medical school is 'free' in the UK, or almost.
andrzejpw, that is a real person that has been 'plastinated' and then dissected out, although I can assure you that they weren't playing chess when they died.

Gunter von Hagen's latest plan for a TV show is to take a cadaver and redesign the body in his picture of how humans 'should have' been made. So he's going to rewire various bits, stick extra organs in here and there, and generally defile a human body. The man is not contributing anything to medical knowledge, he is doing this to line his own pockets, and it makes a mockery of the human body in death.

Phew, rant over!
 
Nov 22, 2002 at 11:43 AM Post #15 of 26
Quote:

Originally posted by grinch
last time i checked, medical school wasn't free.. although i'm sure it is very educational.
wink.gif


europe has **** conventions...

i would much rather pay to see an autopsy than the things listed above...


I know med school isn't free. Ask my wallet. But the teacher isn't pocketing the money either.

**** conventions--yeah, that's what I meant when I said that people sell theiri bodies while alive all the time.

I agree that the autopsy has a fascination value to it. Listen, it is an absolutely amazing thing to see how the body works. My reaction, though, isn't based on the event, it's based on my suspicions of the guys motivations--to defile for entertainment is different than to educate.

Respect for the dead is something lost on society these days, largely because, as a society, we are protected from death. We don't see it around us very much, and when we do, it's very anaseptic. This tends to lend a TV-land quality to this whole thing. Freaky, but not really "real." It's more like watching a horror flick than confronting the mortality and machinery of man. But whatever, I think the guy has a right to do it if he wants, I just think he's an a**h**le for doing so.
 
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