THIS IS WRONG!
November 22 is the anniversary of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination. It is also the day that Body Worlds: Vital opens at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. Body Worlds is an exhibit of real plasticized human bodies; the skin is removed and the liquid is replaced with plastic. What’s left, a flayed human body, is displayed to the public in various poses for the price of an admission ticket.
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Let me take you out of your comfort zone. Suppose one of the bodies was that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy? I am sure that you would be outraged. But would your outrage be because of the lack of respect for a president or because of the lack of respect for a fellow human being? I believe that your instinctual reaction is because it was the body of a fellow human. Don't you think that all human beings deserve the same respect?
It may be difficult to put in words why we should render this respect. Our forefathers realized that some things could not easily be reduced to logic. That is why the Declaration of Independence speaks of self-evident truths. Human dignity is one of those self-evident truths along with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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To the owners and tenants of the Faneuil Hall marketplace Body Worlds: Vital is a source of foot traffic. While I sympathize with the need to draw in the crowds , a disrespectful circus sideshow is not the way to do it.
You may be told that the exhibit is educational. This might be true but it is still disrespectful. Marketing the exhibit as educational is an attempt to overcome our discomfort. The real bodies are at least 90% plastic. There is no reason why they could not be 100% plastic. So why are real bodies used? It's sensational and sensationalism sells tickets.
I hope you will boycott Body Worlds: Vital and also boycott the tenants of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace while the exhibit is present. Let's restore dignity to our fellow man and keep Boston strong.
Aaron Ginsburg