While reading a breezy article about burial alternatives, I was struck by this:
Anyway, plastination seems like a crummy idea. Why add more non-degradable junk to the landscape? And just think -- the junk would be us.
That makes my blood run cold. Not the idea itself (though it's bad) but that innocent-sounding phrase about donating your body for "education and display." Whoah, Nelly. Who controls where my body ends up? If society dives any more rightward, my plasticized body could end up in a Noah's Ark Park display one day. No way that's gonna happpen.Much like mummification, plastination involves preserving the body in a semi-recognizable form. Invented by anatomist Gunther von Hagens, plastination is used in medical schools and anatomy labs to preserve organ specimens for education. But von Hagens has taken the process one step further, creating exhibits of plastinated bodies posed as if frozen in the midst of their everyday activities. According to the Institute for Plastination, thousands have signed up to donate their bodies for education and display.
Anyway, plastination seems like a crummy idea. Why add more non-degradable junk to the landscape? And just think -- the junk would be us.
