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Fortune Magazine has an interesting article about Melinda Gates, a woman most people know nothing about!

I like this quote about leaving money to their children:

Melinda says they will follow Warren Buffett’s philosophy: “A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.”

Just saw this ad on ESPN.  Thought it was pretty funny.  Love the kick.  The guy in the Hawaiian shirt is Cooper Manning, the oldest brother.  He was a wide receiver, but never played in college because he was diagnosed with a narrowing of the spinal column.

Here’s a funny, somewhat profane little break from all the seriousness in the blog for this last week!  It’s the funniest thing that I’ve seen Sarah Silverman do.
 

The bad thing is that I think I’ll be singing this song for the rest of the weekend!

I saw the Bodies the Exhibition in Cincinnati this morning when I visited the Cincinnati Museum Center to film a segment with Fox19 News voicing opposition to the exhibition.  I had not planned on seeing the exhibit at all, but when I arrived at the production van at the Museum Center to meet with a reporter, she wasn’t there. It was raining a little so I decided to seek cover inside. I ended up following an electrical cable through a couple of doors and I suddenly I found myself in the middle of the exhibit.

It was a room eerily quiet only inhabited by the dead.  Around the corner I could hear the sounds of an interview being done so I followed the reporter’s voice into another room.  There she was interviewing Dr. Roy Glover, the chief medical director of the exhibit.  I sat down on a bench next to a gentleman who turned out to be Rodger Pille, Director of Media Relations.  I had popped in a little unexpectedly and unannounced to the Museum personnel, but they didn’t seem to be too startled by my presence.  I was wearing a suit.  I remembered hearing how Martin Luther King jr. always wore suits when protesting.  It shows that you’re serious and that you mean business.

Anyways, some of the exhibit seems more academic, a heart over here, another organ encased in glass over there. Other organs showing different maladies.  This is strongly contrasted with the parts that are meant to be more dramatic and artistic.  Seeing the bodies in poses bothered me a little, especially with all I know about the exhibit and the fact that I was totally alone with the bodies.  However, it was the props that make the exhibit seem undignified to me.  One of the bodies is of a person throwing a baseball.  He’s totally naked, except for a glove and ball.  Looking at it, it just seemed a little over the top, meant more for pointing at than learning from.

After seeing the exhibit, my thoughts still haven’t changed much.  I am firm believer in consent  You need to have a donor that gives explicit informed consent.  But, my feelings in terms of human dignity might have grown a little more.  It isn’t dignified to pose a dead human with a prop.  If medical students were caught doing the same with a cadaver, they’d be kicked out of school.  The intent may have been education, but it has crossed over to exploitation.  And it’s something that I would have rather not seen.

Boycott Bodies the Exhibition Cincinnati

If you’ve ever wanted to become a dissected human exhibit, don’t look to Premier Exhibitions, Inc, the company producing Bodies the Exhibition.  Even though there’s a place for you to sign up at the exhibit, you’re just signing up to donate your body to a university or medical center.

This is directly from Dr. Roy Glover, chief medical director of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. with whom I spoke with today at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

They have no use for those who would willing donate their bodies for this purpose.

If you combine this statement with the idea that some schools have too many bodies, it makes you wonder why they have gone with the “unclaimed bodies” route.

From the BodyWorlds website (the original body show)

There are many people who would like to donate their bodies to medical science after their deaths. One means of doing so is to work with the anatomical institutes of universities. However, such establishments are unable to pass on specimens to other academic institutions in need of such bodies, as costs would be incurred for which they do not want to issue invoices if body donors have not agreed to a sale. In addition, “services” like these are technically not within the declared province of a university in most countries. This situation is particularly awkward, as anatomical institutes frequently have to turn down prospective body donors because they already have more than enough bodies for their own instruction.

If there are ample people who wish to donate bodies to this exhibit, why is Bodies the Exhibition using unclaimed bodies?

I’m reading the FAQ for the Bodies the Exhibition on the museum website.

Where do the specimens come from?
A: All of the specimens in this Exhibition were obtained thorough the Dalian Medical University plastination laboratories in the People’s Republic of China. China has a large and highly competent group of anatomists and dissectors, who are essential to properly preparing these specimens for exhibition and educational purposes.

Will we know who the body specimens are? How did they die?
A: The identity and the cause of death of the anatomical specimens are never revealed to the public. Law requires that only the initial authorized recipient — Dalian Medical University — have this information, and it may not be disclosed to any third party. Premier Exhibitions obtained the bodies from Dalian Medical University, which has established itself as a leader in the process of plastination. Dalian is an internationally recognized medical university that is governed by the World Health Organization.

Notice how the FAQ neatly skirts around the fact that Premier obtains “unclaimed bodies” from the government and uses them without their consent.  Premier will state this when pressed.  The Cincinnati Museum Center isn’t proactive in telling people the whole truth when they visit the exhibit.  This is pretty shady.

I’m surprised at the number of people that believe that these bodies were actually donated bodies.  But it’s not even possible, since Premier Exhibitions does NOT use donated bodies.  They won’t take you even if you want them to.

WCPO Channel 9 News ran a story tonight about the Bodies: the Exhibition controversy.  My sister Janice and I were both interviewed about the issues.  Only a short segment was used of our interviews but I think we got our points across.  It was an interesting experience and I was glad to have the opportunity to get the message out to a large audience. 

However, it might get drowned out by all the TV advertising and billboards the Museum Center has bought.  This is going to be a cash cow for the museum and they’re going to milk it for all its worth.  Then this exhibit moves on to the next unsuspecting city to rake in millions all over again. Sad.

From WCPO.com: Bodies …The Exhibition Draws Criticism (VIDEO)
From WCPO.com: Bodies …The Exhibition Draws Criticism (Story)