Kate McPlato (Ham, ON)
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I don't think that it is immoral to visit Body World exhibits. In fact, the bodies should be considered masterful pieces of art. The purpose of the exhibits is not to pervert anything, but rather to educate and share the beauty of human anatomy. Clearly, the exhibits portray representational artwork, an art style which can be traced to Plato who defined art as mimesis, imitation or mimicry resembling reality. Obviously, Body World resembles the real world, so it should be considered art. You don't see people who don't like certain types of art saying looking at them is immoral, so Body World shouldn't be considered immoral either!
Bill Descartes (Dun, ON)
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Body World is obviously immoral! For many people these exhibits are wrong religiously. I am not religious and I can still clearly see that they are wrong. On the Body World website it says that the bodies are “for the qualification of physicians and the instruction of laypersons.” This doesn’t imply that people knowingly donate their bodies to Body World! Some of the corpses were actually corpses of Russian prisoners – that’s messed up! I understand that people interpret the bodies as art, and that’s completely legitimate philosophically. However, the bodies cannot be considered art without consent – until then Body World should be boycotted!
Body Worlds are exhibits of preserved human bodies of deceased people posed to demonstrate various aspects of human anatomy. Some bodies have organs removed, are cut in half, cut to expose circulatory systems, and posed in athletic positions. Controversy swirls around the exhibits and are banned in many places.
BodyWorld
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