The Anti-BODIES Virtual Protest Site

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Because it is not ok to take another person's body, plastinate, skin, dissect, pose, and display him with a piece of sporting equipment to be viewed by people of all ages...
 
because exploiting the dead in order to make a profit is wrong, no matter what the rationalization...
 
because dead bodies are not art supplies...
 
because, when we dehumanize the dead, it becomes easier to dehumanize the living...

because every death, whatever the cause, is that of a human being who wished, in life, to be treated with respect....

we come together to form this virtual picket line. 

Those of us listed below stand in opposition to BODIES...the Exhibition and hope that by doing so, others will make an educated decision with respect to walking through the exhibit's entrance.

_________________________________________________
 
Here are the newest members of the picket line:

Name
City, State
Comments
Dwana Hooper
Valdosta, GA
Can the UN do anything about the bodies coming from China?!
Bonnie Young laing
Pittsburgh, PA
 This exhibit is appalling and inhumane. As a social scientist, I am required to gain informed consent for such innocuous practices as interviewing "human subjects".  Therefore, it is hard for me to contemplate how the bodies of "human subjects" can be displayed without documented consent.  It flies in the face of the ethics of every profession of which I am aware...the rationale for the continuation of the exhibit is not persuasive.

My family will not support the
Carnegie Science Center as long as it continues to fail to honor basic ethical principles.
Jean D'Ascenzo
Haddonfield, NJ

I was glad to find a way to protest this neo-Nazi exhibition.  I hope others do too.

Bernard D'Ascenzo
Haddonfield, NJ
 
Aaron Franklin
Imperial, CA

They should be required to provide documentation of consent.  This is appalling.

Cassandra Franklin

Imperial, CA

Using bodies of people that have not given consent is absurd and should not be tolerated. 

Allison Schlesinger
Pittsburgh (Dormont), PA

It seems that one of the Carnegie Science Center's arguments for bringing "Bodies ... the Exhibition" to Pittsburgh is that it's a very popular exhibit.

You could say the same about the circus freak shows that once toured the country.

Mary D. Snead
Martinez, GA

I cannot believe that any culture would accept such a flagrant and disgusting demonstration of disrespect for human life. I am ashamed that this exhibit has made its way into the USA.

Paul J. Dardeau
Lenexa, KS

I'm still in shock that this is in fact real.  Where does it all end?  How is this different from taxidermy, but for people?  Is there anything sacred left in the world?  I will do everything in my power to oppose this madness.

Dave Ackerman
Gibsonia, PA

Thank you, Ms. Catz, for your courageous moral stand.

Matt Fetterman
Pittsburgh, PA

The 20/20 show on ABC was very disturbing. I got to agree that Elaine Catz was right all along and additionally she had the integrity to resign over her principles.
It is just totally unacceptable to use bodies for this exhibit when we are not 100% sure that the people have agreed to it.
It is an embarrassment to
Pittsburgh- we should be better than this.

Patrecia Barrett
Redding, CA
 
Daniel Fine, MD
New Kensington, PA

As a human being, and as a resident of the Pittsburgh, and as a supporter of the Carnegie Museums, I am ashamed that I and other people here have been silent on this  issue. The exhibit is a disgrace, viewers who are aware of the questions and condone it are in denial, and the leadership of the museum has been totally irresponsible in failing to understand the human rights questions and failing to do real diligence in determining the provenance of the exhibit and the "bodies". Shame on the Carnegie.
Much gratitude to you Ms Catz for your courage and your witness.

Dr. Rosario Sudano DMD
Portersville, PA

This is truly appalling. Hypocrisy at the highest level.  I am sure the humans in this "exhibit" did not sign up for it.  Are their families being compensated? I don't think so. It is disrespectful and immoral.  This is just another example of the moral decay of our society.

Julian & Laura Semilian

Winston-Salem, NC

We are horrified by this (we found out about it Feb 15).  Thank you for your efforts in recognizing and working against a thing unconscionable in every way, beginning to end!  Please let us know if there is something we can do in our area, or also the New Orleans / Mobile area.  I have been posting about this on the internet with links to your site.  Thank you for your courage and conviction in leaving Carnegie.

Ed Falenski
Oakmont, Pa.

I believe the Show to be unethical.  Anyone paying the cost of admission becomes responsible for the actions of the Show's Creators. 

Anita Orans Fine
New Kensington, PA

appalling lack of morality and human sensitivity

Anne Araya
Fort Thomas, KY
 
Kathy Fine
Pittsburgh, PA
 
Suzanne Polen
Pittsburgh, PA
 
Molly Rush
Pittsburgh, PA

I find the use of the word "specimen" when referring to human beings says it all.

Karen S. Peterson
Pittsburgh, PA
As a retired public health professor, I am outraged at seeing the comments defending this exhibit as a learning experience.  An even better learning experience is to work with people who are homeless, who are living in poverty, and who, as innocent individuals, suffer the consequences of military actions.
Robert Jeddrzejewski
TarentumPA

I have written a personal letter to JO HAAS questioning her common sense, ethics and sensitivity as well as her persistent attempts to justify the unjustifiable.  Am boycotting the Science Center as long as she is affiliated.

Judy Gallo
McKees Rocks, PA
I am very surprised that there are so many others who feel exactly the same as I do.  Utterly horrified, sickened and appalled.  I've lost faith in most of humanity. This society and it seems most of the so called "civilized" world has reached a new low. There isn't much I can add or say that hasn't already been expressed by other members of this Picket Line.  I hope the spirits of these abused, tortured, and exploited individuals haunt every person involved who has profited from this abomination.  Have these people ever heard of Karma? It’s obvious they have no conscience or sense of right or wrong. And that goes for all of the patrons viewing this exhibit also.  One should always remember; When you look into the abyss, It looks back into you.
Edward R Mortimer
Danielson, CT

Unethical, immoral and pornographic.  No science or art here, only bloody murder for profit.

Tirzah Mason
Trafford, PA

This is an important step in ending the silence that becomes complicity. History abounds (as does daily life) with instances in which people and other creatures are treated as objects of use, mis-use, to be entertained by or titillated by -in the guise of being educated. One must disengage one's heart in order to view this exhibit- and that is a very dangerous thing to do. When these plastinated bodies are no longer useful, where will they go? Will they be sent to a landfill or incinerator like trash, will someone remember they were once human beings, created in the image of G-d, subjective consciousnesses of the Universe? And what do we become, as users?

Nancy Allen
Brooklyn, NY

i went to this exhibit almost a year ago and i still feel horrified. it is shameful.

Andrew Gallo
McKees Rocks,PA

What really bothers me is that the Catholic Church, the Pittsburgh Diocese in this particular instance, is condoning this macabre and grotesque display...They need to get their act together and actually stand up for something in this world.

Angelina
Jacksonville, AL

My Chemistry teacher, saw this and is absolutely amazed by this exhibit.  I on the other hand am not, and wish I never would have seen it.  At all.  Even being a pre nursing major in college, this is absolutely disgusting.  This is showing the public, humans cut in half, etc.  I'd MUCH rather learn about my insides from a PLASTIC model.  This is such gore to me.  Who would agree for the world to see their dead body?  Disgusting.

Greg Shaw
Ithaca, NY
 
Pat Monahan
Pittsburgh, PA

I am glad to see that someone (Ms Catz) has had the courage to back up their convictions.  This isn't education, it voyeurism in its ugliest form.

Georgianne Cohen
West Hartford, CT
 
Melissa Vance
Neenah, WI

This is morally and ethically reprehensible. It disgusts me to think that anyone would participate in this exhibition.

Lawrence Smith
Phoenix, AZ

As a medical professional, we are charged with the dignity of our fellow humans while alive, and after death.  We must shut down these freakshows as a sign of respect for humanity.

Perry Dimmitt
Tyler, TX

This is very wrong and needs to be stopped.

Kay Fox
Detroit, MI

I feel that the Bodies exhibition is dishonorable. It is wrong that this is how anyone thought to make a profit. To make a circus of people who had no idea that they'd be made deceased clowns, plastered and displayed in front of viewers who believed that stronger ethics and morals were behind the exhibit. I am disappointed to say that I am one of those viewers who have been to a viewing here in Detroit in May 2007. I had no idea that this was actually set up as a form of national new wave entertainment for a colossal profit. I began realizing something was wrong when I found out there were several simultaneous viewings all across the country, that had begun to extend dates to continue months beyond the original schedule ending as if to take advantage of the ever flowing profit. That's when it hit me, "What's really going on here?" I apologize for my attendance, and more so that I didn't ask the "right" questions prior to attending. This saddens me horribly.

Paul Chu
Meriden, CT

Exhibitions of this sort are an assault on the dignity of the human person and the existential meaning of the body... BODIES, specifically, is an assault on basic legal rights.

 

Anthony Manganiello
Orlando, FL
 
Elizabeth Dardeau
Abbeville, LA

Praise God that there are still people in the world that are willing to recognize evil and to speak out at all costs.  I am proud to stand with you.  Thank you.

Lora Vergott
San Antonio, TX
 
Orville Clark
Columbia, MO

This practice is morally reprehensible.  If it is immoral to use stem cells to cure diseases then  surely it is immoral, unethical and potentially illegal to use dead bodies for entertainment.  I can not imagine any value a real body has in education that an artificial plastic model cannot provide to the general public.

Robert Nagel
Pittsburgh PA

First we show disrespect for living people in the name of entertainment, now it's the dead. I thought this was supposed to be the 21st century.

Brigette Bonilla
Brooklyn, NY

Thank you, for giving me a voice.

Tina L. Lawson
Kettering, OH

I made the mistake of visiting the Bodies: The Exhibition show in Cincinnati, OH, going in uninformed.  My friends and I have been sickened and feel cheapened by the experience.

Connie Erlich
Sacramento, CA

I agree with the views expressed by everyone on this picket line.  To desecrate human bodies is immoral, irresponsible and an atrocity.  Of course this desensitizes people to the value of fellow human beings. Of course it is a modern-day freak show.  Of course it more than likely violates the wishes of the victims in the show to be displayed in such a manner.  Thank all of you for expressing your views.  Especially thank you Elaine Catz for your moral courage in quitting a job you probably loved (prior to this grotesque display) and for establishing this web site.

Harold A Perkins
Athens, OH

This grotesque display of human beings as meat is only the latest and most morbid manner in which the human body is commodified for corporate profit. We must do all we can to resist these intrusive and perverse practices for the sake of the people on display who have had their privacy and dignity violated in the deepest sense. Shame on anyone patronizing these exhibits on the basis of getting 'an education'- their are many alternative ways to educate people about the body without exploitation.

Thomas C. Plocki
Saxonburg, PA
 
Susan Dirr
Cincinnati, OH
 
Amanda Erin Lo
Albuquerque, NM

As a medical student who has worked with cadavers as part of my educational training, I have been fully aware and sensitive to the respect for donated persons and the absolute ethical need for informed consent.  Medical schools undergo a thorough and respectful process when interviewing donors, and much caution is gone into protecting their privacy and dignity.  This exhibit lacks documentation of consent and holds at best a foul "justification" that the bodies were unclaimed (which does not negate the inherent dignity of a person and their body).  I am disgusted that much of public is not aware or is unconcerned of this human taxidermy and profit murder.

Susannah Fine
Ithaca, NY
 
Karen Corcoran Dabkowski
Pittsburgh, PA

If a society is to be gauged by what it considers entertainment and what cannot be classified as such, I think 'BODIES...the Exhibition' forms a scathing judgement about what we as a people are willing and ready to pay to see. 

 

The fact that deceased human beings are displayed in idiotic sportsman poses gives a horrifying frivolity to our denial of death itself, and in particular, death with dignity.

 

What is next? 

 

"My Lai.....THE MUSICAL"?

Timothy Ingram
Henderson, NV

Evil.

Benjamin Bach
Walton, KY

Every Saturday I will be at the Cincinnati Museum in person protesting from at least 10-12, later if schedule allows it.

Ann Rusenko
Ambridge, PA
 
Delores Rusenko
Ambridge, PA
 
Polly Williams
Dayton, OH

Usually I am very tolerant and open-minded, but this has been very hard for me to wrap my mind around.

Karen Tanner
Cincinnati, OH

This is horrible.  How would the attendees feel if this was their Mother, Father, Son or Daughter dissected and posed for a paying public's entertainment.  Saying that a body was "unclaimed" is too sad -- because this poor soul had no family to claim their body it is all right for us to then use them for entertainment?  For profit???  What has happened to the human race so that people can sink so low?  What about death with dignity?  Perhaps showing some respect for the dead could help us show respect for the living.

Duane Bruce
Kansas City, MO

One of these exhibits opened in Kansas City today and I am appalled. The ease by which we as a society whitewash over human debasement and immorality and praise it as the exercise of a free market society is astonishing.

Suzanne Thirkell
Riverside, MO

The concept makes me physically ill!

Carol Holzman
Northport, NY

We are a doomed society if we see this as art!

Mary A. Jones
Oklahoma City, OK

This is the most appalling exhibit imaginable, and seeing that all the bodies looked of Asian descent, I did some research, and it seems it's a good chance that these people did not "voluntarily" give their bodies for this exhibit, they were executed for their religious beliefs. There are no consent forms on file or exhibited, they don't even know who these people are or how they died. My guess is that they are Falun Gong followers. USA should not allow such reprehensible acts to come here and be rewarded, this is a clear violation of human rights.

Julius Votali
Emmaus, PA
 
Angela Arndt
Cincinnati, OH

I am the most vocal freedom of speech advocate on the block; however before we defend free speech we need to defend human dignity.

Jan Murphy
Cheltenham, PA

Thanks!

R.C.H. Mulhare
 

I am personally opposed to any and all body plastination exhibits, both as a person and as a Catholic. Plastinating human bodies is an affront to the dignity of humanity, treating it like a piece of cheap, sensationalist "artwork", instead of part of what makes a human person wholly human...The human body should be reverently returned to the earth from which its substance was ultimately derived, not carted around to be gawked at by the masses, who seem to have lost the fine art of critical thinking.

...what of the ones brought in from China? Who were they and how did they die? They might have been some poor soul who was worked to death in a sweat shop factory, or who was wrongly executed in one of the Chinese concentration camps. Would you display the body of a Holocaust victim this way?

Matthew Taylor
Spring Grove, PA
 
Janice Tsai Jezek

Cincinnati, OH

Thank you for doing this!  I am working here in Cincinnati in leading the grassroots opposition movement here along with my brother Morris.

Hannah Ford

Washington, D.C.

Right now I'm writing a paper for a college course on the ethics of the bodies exhibit and this was an amazing source.

Sister Berty Arenottsberg
Erie, PA

This is truly a grotesque exploitation of humanity for profit.

James Scott
Larimer, PA

It is vulgar and disgusting to profit off the death of political prisoners.

Amy Fogelstrom Chai, MD, MS

Ellicott City, MD

I am a physician.  I have dissected human beings.  That is where my commonality with the creator of "Body Worlds" ends.  Actually, in re-reading the sentence above, I inadvertently wrote the word, "human beings."  THAT is the difference between a physician and a plastinator.  I see the corpses as people, and those who view the Body exhibit will NOT see any human beings.  They will see "art" created from skinned corpses.
What would you think if YOUR physician had worked for the plastinators?  Can you picture YOUR physician skinning a patient and then posing the deceased like a doll?  My guess is that you would not feel very comfortable with that doctor.  WHY?  You would feel in your bones that there was something very wrong with that doctor.  And you would be right.  "Undraping" or "posing" a cadaver in medical school would get you kicked out in a hurry.  That is because it shows a profound lack of respect and understanding of the value and dignity of the human being once housed by that temple of flesh.
Doctors see naked people, but they are not aroused...they see dead people, but they are not morbidly fascinated.  That is because they are taught to care deeply for the human being inside the body.  "Bodies" is what happens when you no longer care about the human being...the flesh is an object.  That is my definition of pornography.

Amy Lee Johnson

Cincinnati, OH

I think this is the most disgusting form of human trafficking that exists. After the ABC 20/20 special I'm simply speechless and horrified. Honestly I don't think I will renew my Cincinnati Museum Center membership next year. We just don't know where the bodies came from. In the best case scenario we do know that none of the deceased or families gave permission. I just can't help to think of a mother in China wondering what happened to her missing son. Frankly I find the public’s response banal.

Abraham Nejat
Salida, CA
 
Brian Proffitt

KY

Human Bodies - 25 million rental fee

Exhibition (exploitation) - Over 200 million in profit

Human rights, human dignity and morality – Worthless

Karl W. Metzner

Kimberly, WI

I have been furious about this exhibit for a long time.  I have extensive work and study experience in China, speak and read Chinese fluently, am a former corporate attorney, and want to help people understand that the people who possessed the bodies on display did not, as far as we know, give their permission for their use in this manner. 

Kelli Dios
Clark, NJ
 
Robert C. Weeber
N. Huntingdon, PA
 
Scott Weeber
Irwin, PA
 
Julie Bernsen Brook
Cincinnati, OH
 
Mary Faith Colon
Cincinnati, OH
 
Diane Deely
Pittsburgh, PA
 
Lori Abrams
Pittsburgh, PA
 
Margaret Weitzel
Los Angeles, CA
Thank you for your work.
Tina Baldwin
Sioux Falls, SD
 
Alicia Bayer
Westbrook, MN
 
Valerie Nemeth
Calgary, Canada
 
Mary C. Endres
Madison, WI
 
Steven Fenichel, M.D.
Ocean City, NJ

I believe that this body exhibit fuels executions in China and is therefore a crime against humanity.
How our so-called Christian nation is able to turn a blind eye to this murder for profit venture sends a powerful message of hypocrasy.

Ronald G. Barnes
Exton, PA
 
Paola Paley
Israel

will u make this exhibition with the flesh of ur child??

Steve  Gigante
Allentown, PA
 
Dawna Falso
Egg Harbor City, NJ

I'm so happy to have found others who are outraged by this new form of entertainment.  I was starting to think that there was something wrong with me, as I have been sickened by this since first hearing of it.  They are now on display at one of the Trump casinos in Atlantic City.  If we become de-sensitized to this practice, what's next?  It's almost as if we are in the end times, that people would take their children to see this.

Claudia Perkins
Elysian, MN
 
Sally White
Durham, NC
 
Shannon Scholler
Wichita, KS
 
Akash Aggarwal
Patiala Punjab
 
Pam Miller Howard
Dayton, OH

A friend innocently mentioned they were going for a brief getaway and that they might stop at the Art Deco Natural Historic Museum in Cincinnati.  They have a young son.  When I sent an impassioned plea to not go there, and why, I came upon your site.

     I am appalled that a city like Cincinnati and the Museum has allowed this exhibit to go on for so long, apparently continuing to make a profit. It is a sad commentary on our society that people attend every day viewing, basically, murdered victims from a repressive government.

     Please write your Congressman in support of house bill, HR 5677. Although Congress is in summer recess, perhaps it can be taken up again. Because of the many people who somehow believe that freedom of expression actually gives dispensation for viewing bodies of murdered Chinese, and protesters have been threatened and taken from premises of these exhibits, the only way to stop the continued victimization and keep demand for more prisoners bodies high, is to stop the importation of these bodies.
     If they were NOT real bodies, learning about the body is fine.  If you want to learn about the body, attend a college class or the free health classes offered by hospitals. Devote your life to saving real people in any of the excellent health or rescue fields available.

     This is a portion of the e-mail I sent to my friend-
In addition to believing that it is denigrating to the body God gave us to plasticize it in the way that they do, having the bodies perform odd motions, etc., I am very convinced the bodies are of young, undoubtedly Chinese, dissidents who were executed and the bodies sold on the black market.  The whole thing is revolting, because of this. They were smuggled in as medical models, plastic and they are actually plasticized bodies. The 20/20 story and others do have compelling evidence that the living people did NOT give permission (as with another group in Europe-grotesque but the people knew what was happening to them.) These people were not only imprisoned and executed in life but then are forever imprisoned after death, in plastic, for hordes of Americans and others to stare at.

Oren Markowitz
Cedarhurst
 
Michael Wales
Toronto, Ontario
 
Julie Wilkinson
Holdenville, OK
 
Lucinda Stillinger
Oklahoma City, OK
 
Jessica Neagle
Washington, D.C.
A major bioethical issue arises when we allow harvested organs and bodies from China of those who did not consent to be traveling in the United States and dissected on display.
Jose Ramirez
Aibonito PR
A new exhibition is opening in Puerto Rico.
Beatriz E. Ramirez Betances
San Juan, Puerto Rico
 
Shakira Lopez
San Juan, Puerto Rico
 
Richard Anderson
Wilmington, NC

I saw the exhibit and now I feel shame. I feel I was misled. I am glad this website was here to show me the light. I have posted pictures on my flickr site with links to this website.

Silke Liria Blumbach
Heidelberg, Germany
 
Manuel Corbelli
Paris, France

I think it's a scandal, making money out of dead bodies. Also, how can we be sure they gave their consent? they were not executed? that there's no trade of human bodies?

Abel Silva
San Juan, Puerto Rico

It is sad that some people,especially ones representing the scientific community, have become so dehumanized,that they put financial interests before human rights.  In this case the right to know.  This event is reminiscent of the scenes in which Dr. Hannibal feeds his guests human flesh for dinner, as a means to show how similar they can be to him.  It would seem that someone trying to bring out the morbidity in people. 

They are showing "Bodies" right here in Old San Juan, as I write.
Anastasios Droulias
Athens, Greece