Body Worlds Exhibit...At what cost?

I've wanted to comment on my experience to the Body Worlds Exhibit for a few days now.  My short response would be to all those who would like to see what a dead human body looks like is: don't go, save your money.  If you really want to see what a dissected human body looks like, hit up someone with a key to the cadaver lab at a local university.  If you're in the Salt Lake area, I'd be happy to show you the museum at the University of Utah.  It's ten times more real, and there are pretty much the same items for viewing.  So, what's so bad about the exhibit, you ask?  Here's my long answer: a few things.  First, the price.  $22 may not sound like much, but after looking at one dissected human body, you've pretty much seen it all.  Take your spouse out for a date instead.  Second, you can't touch anything!  I understand that it's art, and shouldn't be handled, but in order to gain the full experience you need to touch, probe, follow, slice, and dissect (I only paid a $10 lab fee to do all that!).  How can you appreciate the valves of the heart if you can't feel their texture and see how they allow unidirectional flow?  You couldn't even lean over the enclosed areas, which limited the view of some of the most important parts of the organ.  Third, I would question if some of the cadavers were actually real.  Recall, I spend 10+ hours a week hovered over my own cadaver at school.  These bodies are heavy!  Some of the positions the artist placed the cadavers in must have been either supported internally with rods or some device of the like, or just not real at all, perhaps some fabricated cast of a cadaver.  Fourth and finally (because I could go on for hours), the issue of preserving human dignity comes into question.  I appreciate art just as much as the next fellow, but I found it degrading to see these bodies in abnormal positions, with one body holding above his head his entire abdominal viscera.  Another time was when I saw a group of older ladies snickering at the sight of the cadavers penis.  Come on, really?!  I recall my undergraduate professor telling the class before we saw the cadavers to maintain upmost respect for the cadaver.  We weren't/aren't allowed to take pictures of the bodies we dissect, and for good reason: some people just aren't ready to see everything the body has to offer.  He was describing the ethics behind gross anatomy, which clearly isn't followed at the Body World's Exhibit.

Was there anything I did like, you might ask?  Sure there was.  I love the human body, and am honored to dissect one this semester (but I even have issues with that).  If you go to the exhibit purely focusing on the art aspect you will be floored at the beauty of the human body, and all of it's contents, even down to the embryo display, which was amazing (but real?).  There was also on display some of the modern technologies used in surgery, like arterial stents, and how surgeons would perform a bypass.  That was cool.

So, if you are dying (no pun intended) to see the exhibit, and pay the overpriced fee, go ahead; it might be the only cadaver you see in your life.  I would, however echo the advise my instructor gave me: be respectful, and know that what your looking at was a living, breathing individual just like you are as you sit and read this entry.  Try not to laugh, because it takes the seriousness away from the body.  How would you like it if someone snickered at your nether regions?  And remember, the exhibit is an artist's rendition of what the human body might look like.  You will never see anything like it in an actual gross anatomy lab.

Dan