Respect For The Dead

Did anyone else see this? It really struck me as out of place. Okay, I understand individuals donating their bodies to science and understand the showing of such bodies for educational purposes. Aside from the other controversies surrounding this exhibit I also have a real problem with how the bodies are being displayed. It's one thing to present them in a straightforward manner but it become something entirely different when the bodies are displayed in what I will call "artistic" poses (playing basketball, holding their own brains, etc). Seems to send a message that human bodies are nothing more than art supplies further cheapening our humanity.

Sick: NBC's Today Displays Human Corpse Next to Katie and Matt

Posted by Rich Noyes on November 22, 2005 - 11:48.

Several times over the past few weeks, Katie Couric has used her Today show to push the idea that the United States is now a country that abuses human rights. But this morning’s Today saw a dead human corpse, stripped of his skin and with his skull removed, located just a few feet from where Katie was sitting next to co-host Matt Lauer on the couch.

The corpse was from a traveling exhibit on human bodies, where the preserved remains are dissected to show different aspects of human anatomy. But according to Friday’s New York Times, human rights groups are extremely concerned that the bodies on this exhibit — presumably including the one that showed up on Today’s set — could be dissidents executed by China’s communist regime...