Exhibition of Dead Bodies

            This article reminded me of a paper I wrote in high school. The paper was about profiting off the dead. I used several examples including: Sean Puffy Combs profiting off Christopher Wallace’s death. We all can remember that when Notorious B.I.G. died, Puff Daddy came out with the hit I’ll Be Missing You. We also know what an enormous hit it was, and the kind of money that it generated, especially considering the fact that at that time “CD Singles” were still popular. I can imagine that Mr. Wallace would have approved of the song and wanted his friend to make money off of the hit. Of course this is a horrible example and if I were to write about profiteering off the deceased today I would offer better ones. Nonetheless it correlates roughly with the article The Strange Story of Julia Pastrana. Her wicked husband directly profited off his deceased wife by publicly displaying her mummified remains. Even after Lent (Julia’s husband) passed, her body was passed around to multiple impresarios. In the end Julia found some solace after a Norwegian Government committee declared her remains are to be used for scientific inquiry only. 

            Today, many countries still have not made it illegal—Including the U.S.—to exhibit dead bodies. One exception is France, first the U.S.'s current stance:

 Assembly Bill 1519 (2007)  would make California the first state to prohibit the commercial profit and public display of human bodies or remains, unless exhibitors provide documented informed consent of the deceased or next-of-kin.[23] This bill was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. (“Body Worlds” from Wikipedia)

 On Tuesday 21 April 2009, a French judge ruled concerning the Paris exhibition of "Our Body: The Universe Within", that exhibiting dead bodies for profit was a "violation of the respect owed to them". "Under the law, the proper place for corpses is in the cemetery.” (“Body Worlds” from Wikipedia)

         I am not a religious person, more spiritual if anything. However, I feel that displaying the remains of someone, publicly and for profit, is a highly disgraceful act. I do think that with prior living consent, a stiff can be used for scientific study. And of course an individual should be allowed to dictate what organs (if any) they would like to donate after death. I realize my above statements are very straightforward, and if I had more room and time for the discussion I would get into particularities like taxidermy, traveling ancient Egyptian mummy expeditions and the proposed Californian Bill 1519, in particular the consent aspect. We could also discuss Obama making the decision to dump Osama’s body into the ocean not only so it couldn’t be revered by terrorists, but so it would not be a spectacle to draw in western viewers for their own pleasure (whatever that may be). Anyways, I think profiting off the dead is wrong in any shape and form. In the case of Notorious BIG or even now Michael Jackson, the money from their songs should be donated not make some greedy filthy producer and his entourage wealthier.

Domalski, Josh