Sabrina's birthday

For Sabrina's birthday, we went to Oregon for a couple of days. We visited the ocean and the aquarium! We also fit in some shopping and spa-ing. It was a relaxing girls getaway for sure! It was so fun to be with Sabrina and her mom as they experienced new travel related things like riding public transportation! (Even though we were FREEZING!)


I <3 Portland! The scenery and people were amazing!
I was quite sold on the city. And as I become more environmentally conscious, I was impressed at how "green" the city is. There were solar trash compacters at the park, the liquid/solid flushing on the toilettes was standard, everyone was using reusable bags. It was good to see.

We also went to Body Worlds. No photos allowed but it was SO weird in an eerie sort of way. That kind of thing makes me, as well as a lot of people, question their own mortality. As a biomedical scientist, it was really cool to see whole bodies, and then see the layers peeled off one by one. Note to self: learn more about Gunther von Hagens' plastination technique http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/prelude.html

Whenever there is something new and caring, of course there is controversy. Don't get me started on bioethics. I think in the field of medicine/science it really is a slippery slope.

In October 2003, a parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan investigated accusations that von Hagens had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric institutions and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, some without prior notification of the families.

He said he had received nine corpses from Kyrgyzstan hospitals, none had been used for the Body Worlds exhibition, and that he was not involved with nor responsible for the notification of families.

Me thinks something sounds fishy here....
Animal rights organizations (though I don't usually give these much creedence, but still) have claimed he didn't have proper papers for animals that he has acquired.

A few years ago I remembered seeing a special about an investigation regarding bodies of Chinese prisoners possibly having been acquired without consent.

In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired some corpses from executed prisoners in China; he countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies and went on to cremate several of the disputed cadavers.

Von Hagen was able to get an injunction to stop the magazine from printing it. Still... something is off. I'm fine with gaining knowledge from a display where all people were willing participants but if they didn't consent, didn't have the capacity to consent, or didn't know exactly what they were consenting to, I do not want to support that (it costs $25 to see the display). It didn't take a psychic to foresee that as soon as this got popular, issues with how the bodies were procured would arise. Considering this is an international exhibit, things get confusing because different countries have their own rules with regards to protecting the dead. I think it's really dangerous to start down this path. With every good thing, people getting to see an learn about the human body and its systems in a totally unique and cool way, there comes a costly negative- ethical issues arise. Think stem cell research. Food for thought.

-B