general commentaries

Art, Science, and Law: Fostering the Public Discourse on Body Worlds

Michele Mekel, J.D., M.B.A., M.H.A.
Executive Director/Legal Fellow
Institute on Biotechnology & the Human Future

Art has been an identifying feature of human culture since prehistoric times and, as such, has assumed various functions within human society. Among those is art's role in advancing the dialogue about the ethical, legal, and societal implications of science and technology. From Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein to the pop culture blockbuster movie The Matrix to the current world premier of the stage production Chimera, works of art confront what it means to be human, and explore our values about how science and technology should be applied for human flourishing or may be abused to create its opposite.

In addition to advancing the public discourse on such issues, art, on occasion, gives rise to them and finds itself as the object of social and cultural controversy. Dr. Gunter von Hagens' Body Worlds exhibits of "anatomical art" may be the ultimate modern-day case-in-point. Body Worlds 2, which just opened in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry, features dissected human bodies posed with props, such as skis, ice skates, ballet slippers, and soccer balls. Von Hagens' "sculptures" are human bodies that have been dismembered in various ways, strategically positioned, and "plastinized" using his patented processes, in order to -- in his words -- "unveil[] the beauty between the skin, frozen in time between death and decay."

But, is this art? Is it science? Is it a teaching tool? Is it "infotainment"? Or is it akin to yesteryear's circus sideshows, which were dehumanizing and exploitative displays of pejoratively labeled "freaks of nature" and specimens of so-called "human oddities" and "medical anomalies"?

These were among the issues grappled with the during an evocative exchange at the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future's (IBHF) program, entitled Humanism in the Age of "Enhancement": A Critical Response to "Body Worlds," which was held at Chicago-Kent College of Law on January 24. The public event, which drew in excess of 100 attendees, featured a diverse panel of experts, including: Liz Lerman, founding artistic director of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, creator of the multi-media dance ensemble Ferocious Beauty: Genome, and 2002 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius Award"; Hannah Higgins, associate professor of art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Fluxus Experience; Christina Bieber Lake, IBHF affiliated scholar, associate professor at Wheaton College, and author of The Incarnational Art of Flannery O'Conner; Katrina Sifferd, IBHF affiliated scholar, attorney, adjunct faculty member at Elmhurst College, and expert in the philosophy of psychology; and Lindsey Thieman, program coordinator at International Museum of Surgical Science.

Kicking off the program, keynoter Liz Lerman discussed the interpretive, fact-generating, and innovative functions of both art and science. "You can't innovate without mistakes," she said. And she cautioned that, with science moving ahead at such a rapid rate, there are no provisions to properly consider and address the resulting errors and loss.

Assessing Body Worlds from a humanist perspective, Hannah Higgins then talked about the use of the human body in artistic representations from the era of da Vinci to modern times. "In Body Worlds, there is a distinction in how the female and the male bodies are used," she observed, focusing specifically on gender representations. "The male bodies are active and heroic, whereas the female bodies are displayed for their reproductive functions."

Taking a somewhat different approach, Christina Beiber Lake examined Body Worlds' use of the grotesque, a tool often used in various artistic media to draw attention to a concept to which the audience may have become desensitized. "Due to overuse of the 'splay-and-display' posing of the bodies, Body Worlds fails in its goals by crossing the line from effectively using the grotesque to capture attention to becoming a macabre spectacle that caters to consumerism," she said.

Katrina Sifferd then took the conversation in another direction by concentrating on the ethical issues inherent in commoditization of the human body, using Body Worlds, which has raised in excess of $40 million in under a decade (none of which is shared with body donors), as an example of this trend that includes human egg and sperm "donation," human tissue sales, and organ harvesting. She pointed out that the trend can lead to dehumanizing actions, such as colonialism, racism, genocide, apartheid, and slavery. "Given the potentially negative effects of commoditization, we should be careful to protect the intrinsic value of the body whenever possible," she cautioned.

The final panelist, Lindsey Thieman, concluded the discussion by exploring what exhibits, such as Body Worlds, could ultimately portend for the human condition through the creation of dissatisfaction with the frailties of the human body. She provided examples of artistic visions of human "enhancement" -- and its opposite.

Nigel M. de S. Cameron, IBHF president, and associate dean and research professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of Technology, provided opening and closing comments. Michele Mekel, IBHF executive director and fellow, moderated the panel. Jonathan Rhodes, executive director of ThreeWalls, the event's co-sponsor, and IBHF research assistant, was a discussant on the panel.

A webcast of the event is available here.

Michele Mekel, J.D., M.H.A., M.B.A., is executive director/legal fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future and associate director/legal fellow of the Center on Nanotechnology and Society -- both at Chicago-Kent College of Law.