“Bodyworlds” exhibit comes to Israel

The “Bodyworlds” exhibit, featuring “plastinated” cadavers posed in lifelike ways, has made its way to the Madatech National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, Israel.

The exhibit has proven popular with viewers (over 26 million of them) with its revolutionary tissue preservation method, and tens of thousands of people have agreed to donate their bodies (after death) to become part of future exhibits.

I remember when the exhibit stopped in Boston and took up residence at the Museum of Science.  The Cap’n and I discussed whether or not to go.  We weighed the issues, including our level of interest, the ethical issues of corpses posing for the viewer rather than reposing in the dirt, as well as the scientific merit of the exhibit.  In the end, we decided not to go.  We believed (and still do) that there is little science to be gleaned from this exhibit (plastic models or pictures would do us just as well), and that despite the informed consent of the donors, the exhibit is still a violation of the dignity of the human body.  It is our impression that the main reason most people go to this exhibit is to see, well, dead people.  (No Sixth Sense necessary.)

It seems the chief rabbi of Haifa agrees with us.  But rather than setting up a demonstration outside the museum or throwing rocks or any of the other nonsense we’ve come to expect from some of the more extreme religious population sectors in Israel, Rabbi She’ar-Yashuv Cohen says, “It’s inside the museum, where they can do what they want, so I don’t think it’s fitting to stage protests. But my recommendation is for people to stay away from the exhibit,” he said.  He cites kavod adam (respect for the body) as a reason not to view the exhibit, and says Jews should not discriminate between Jewish and non-Jewish bodies (or in this case, cadavers) when applying this ethic.  (Most, if not all, of the donors to this exhibit were non-Jews.)

While the Madatech’s spokesman, Dr. Tzvi Ben-Yishai, said that the museum had consulted with rabbis before deciding to host the exhibit, and had been advised of the halachah of prompt burial of corpses and kavod adam, he states that “in the end, we think if the rest of the world has had the opportunity to see the exhibit, then Israel should as well. We don’t need permission from the religious establishment. They can only protest.”

The Cap’n and I would not have gone to see this exhibit, regardless of the reaction of the religious establishment.  But the restraint shown by Rabbi Cohen, his acknowledgment of people’s right to choose for themselves whether or not to see the exhibit, and his deference to halachah and dignity for all human beings as the reason to avoid the exhibit—these all seem to me far superior reasons to pass on the exhibit than Ben-Yishai’s “everyone else has seen it—why not us?”

That, and the fact that I find it a bit freaky that a German scientist is carving up humans in a pseudo-scientific way for entertainment.  I’m sure one can list dozens of ways in which Gunter von Hagens differs from Josef Mengele, but I’m having trouble getting past the similarities.  Perhaps it’s just me, but I find it all rather disturbing.

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