June 8, 2006
By EMILIE RAGUSO
The Patriot Ledger
Aaron Ginsburg braved pounding rain and a gigantic puddle to stand in front of Boston's Museum of Science with a message of protest: "Stand up for human dignity. Stop Body Worlds 2."
Ginsburg, a pharmacist who lives and works in Sharon, has launched a campaign against the controversial exhibit set to open at the museum July 29.
"The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies," as it is called,includes more than 200 specimens, both whole human bodies and body parts,that have been preserved through a process called plastination. That method of preservation allows viewers to take an inside look at real human bodies.
"This is a matter of respect for the deceased," said Ginsburg, who relates his message to his Jewish faith. "A lot of what Judaism is about is respect for other people. That means not making a public display.This isn't educational; it's show business."
The bodies, many of which are sliced open and flayed so viewers can get a closer look at what lies beneath the skin, are arranged in poses including playing baseball, skiing and performing acrobatics. The museum said that active poses create an unparalleled educational experience. Viewers can see muscles stretched taut, for example, or the fat that lies on top of organs.
"I've taught biology for 20 years and no model, no photos, no drawing, captures the beauty, the delicacy and the detail of these real human specimens," said Paul Fontaine, the museum's vice president of visitor programs.
Dr. Gunther von Hagens invented plastination in 1977 while working with anatomy and physiology students at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He later founded the Institute for Plastination, which provides specimens for educational use and Body Worlds exhibits.
Ginsburg, who attends services at a conservative synagogue, said that education doesn't justify the exhibit's "macabre process" and that people could learn just as easily from plastic models.
Evelyn Krieger of Sharon agrees. She signed on in support of Ginsburg's protest.
"I home-school my daughter and we're learning about the human body," she said. "I would be interested in an exhibit to learn about that, but Body World isn't something I'd consider."
She said the exhibit seemed graphic and sensational and conflicts with Judaism.
"We put a lot of emphasis on respect for the dead. That means very quickly having a funeral. Before the funeral, the body is always guarded, there's always someone saying prayers."
Ginsburg's rabbi, Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Temple Israel in Sharon, also supports the protest.
Rabbi Creditor said that donating one's organs is a Jewish imperative, but only if those organs can help someone else survive.
"If I'm giving my body for display and not for healing," he said, "I am, in a sense, insulting the One who gave me my body."
Rabbi Terry Greenstein of Congregation Klal Yisrael, a reform synagogue in Sharon, wasn't aware of Ginsburg's campaign. But she said that Body Worlds 2 was counter-intuitive to Jewish practices.
"It just brings up images of the Holocaust," she said, "the way they played with human bodies."
Aaron Ginsburg doesn't think he'll be able to stop the exhibit, but he plans to return to the museum to demonstrate once the weather improves.
"It doesn't bother me if it ends up that I'm a one-man show," Ginsburg said. "I would just like to get people thinking. That's what this is about."