Mutter Museum Thoughts

After watching the video from the Mutter museum we discussed whether we thought that they were for medical students as they claimed or if they were more geared for the public. While I do believe that medical students could learn things from the museum from the various exhibits within it, it seemed to me like it was more of a place for the public to come into.

I think that when they related that some things are famous because of who had previously owned them to parts of the bodies of famous people in the museum shows that fact. If it was for medical reasons then it shouldn't matter who the body part had belonged to. Yes, it is important to know the person's age and occupation as those can be factors to whatever the ailment was, but it shouldn't matter what their name was if it is for purely medical study. The other thing that made me think that it was more for public attendance was the showing of the shrunken heads. On one hand I do agree with Callie, that you can study them as an important part of a culture. But on the other hand if the purpose of the museum is for the medical students to study to prevent those diseases from happening, the shrunken heads don't really have a place.

I do think that in the case of Chang and Eng's liver, that it should be returned to their family, with just a cast of it remaining at the museum. With that in mind I still think that the museum is a good place for people to become aware of different diseases, whether they occur in our country on a regular basis or not.