Life Cadavers on Parade
This morning I previewed Bodies: The Exhibition, which opens Saturday in the former site of the temporary downtown library (800 Pike St).
Controversy surrounds the corpses’ identitiesthe bodies are Chinese people who died unidentified or unclaimed by family members, and then were purchased legally by Dalian Medical University’s Plastination Laboratories where they were prepared for display, according to Premier Exhibitions, who now owns the specimens. Some critics speculate that the “unclaimed” could be executed prisoners whose families were not informed of their demise; some bemoan the fact that the display company does not have the consent of the deceased to publicly display their bodies. Protesters have met the exhibit in other cities and I’m sure Seattle will have its share. A similar show in San Francisco, called The Universe Within, heard similar criticisms and then had to be closed when the corpses started to leak. NPR’s All Things Considered took a close look at Bodies and other cadaver exhibits in August.
I was delighted and awed by the bodies on exhibit here and I am planning to go again. I’ve posted some detailed photos after the jump. First, though, ask yourself: If I were invited to observe the autopsy of a stranger, would I go? If the answer is no, you might want to stop reading here, and you should probably skip Bodies.
On some corpses where the skin has been removed, the eyebrows, nose, and lips are intact, which has the effect of re-humanizing the faces.
This is an entire central and peripheral nervous system, with eyes and optic nerves attached. The tone of the caption card is proud: "This remarkable dissection...”
Blood vessels of the body in isolation make breathatkingly beautiful displaysI'd put one in my living room if they were for sale. (There will be a retail shop attached to the exhibit though it hasn't been installed yet.)
I had to repeatedly remind myself that the displays aren't wax models.
An entire human hide lies in a heap (our skin alone weighs 11 lbs. on average).
We are mostly water, meat, and bone.
Other things you will see:
Eighth-inch thick cross-sections of an entire corpse allowing a transverse view, much like a slice of a tree trunk allows you to count its growth rings.
A room of fetuses in various stages of development, and several with congenital defects (a placard outside warns you to skip this room if you you'd rather not see dead babies).
Lungs damaged by nicotine (plus an appeal for you to quit smoking on the spot, and a handy clear (and thus far empty) discard box for discarded cigarettes packs).
The show is pricey ($24.50 for adults, $16 for kids 4-12, plus a $3 service charge), but if you're at all fascinated by what you're made of, you won't regret spending the cash.
Dan Savage told me he'd never take his kid, though he heard Seattle schools are planning tours. If I were still an elementary-aged wannabe scientist, I'd be fascinated and positively affected by this display of bald truths and adamant facts.
Thanks to Kelly O for the photos!
Didn't this cadaver thing come out like a year ago? It's already been covered by every major newspaper.
It's stale old news. Why did you even go see it? Shouldn't you have flown to New York to see the show when it first opened?