Yesterday Lloyd and I took Chris to the Telus World of Science to see the Body Worlds 1 Exhibit. This is the exhibit of real human bodies that have been plasticized. You can read more about it at: www.bodyworlds.com/en.html
It was a very interesting exhibit and I'm so glad we went. For the most part it was easy to switch off and forget that they were real dead bodies. They just looked like plastic models seen in typical anatomy exhibits in museums. The only time I found it difficult was in the section with the fetuses - there is a pregnant lady in there and even that didn't really effect me. It didn't seem quite real even - and to me it didn't seem as bad - the adults in the exhibit had all donated their bodies to science before they had died - they had signed up for it!
But there were babies in there. Glass cabinets with babies at different stages. Not the embryos at early stages like 4 and 6 weeks etc...but the babies at 22 weeks, 28 weeks and 33 weeks. In fact it was the 28 weeks old baby that effected me the most I think. It just seemed so tiny and so perfect and so helpless in the cabinet and it hadn't signed up to be in there - it didn't have a choice to be there - and it hadn't lived it's life at all. I'm not even sure why they needed to be there - They didn't teach anything about the human body really - did they need to have them to show how much a baby grows in those weeks - I'm not sure???? Was that reason valid enough? The embryos yes but the babies?
The babies and the fetus room was in a separate area from the rest of the exhibit and it was the quietest room of the exhibit. And I noticed that the next part of the exhibit had 'funny' things in it - like roosters and penises....and there were people making jokes - and I'm sure that was done on purpose - and Lloyds made a joke soon after leaving the fetus room....several people were laughing in the next area and I think maybe that was a coping mechanism for many.......the previous section was so emotional many just felt like they had to break the tension.
All in all it was a wonderful exhibit. It runs until mid October in Edmonton - if you're in the area and you haven't been yet, I totally recommend it - you learn sooooo much about the human body!
3 days ago
