Shall I add the tag "necrocosmetics" is is that too much? When human bodies are treated with less Dignity than lettuce. I know that most western people think of the body as just a shell, just dirt...
Shall I add the tag "necrocosmetics" is is that too much?
A Reuters journalist purchased a cervical spine and two cadaver heads for a total of $900 from a Tennessee-based tissue bank without any official vetting or follow-up questions about how the parts would be used and by whom. When the spine and heads arrived at their shipping address — the body-donation program at the University of Minnesota, Reuters’ partner for the investigative series — they were determined to be unusable due to insufficient documentation of their donors’ medical histories. (Key quote: “We regulate heads of lettuce in this country more than we regulate heads of bodies.”)
When human bodies are treated with less Dignity than lettuce. I know that most western people think of the body as just a shell, just dirt who cares. I used to think so. But it's worth remembering that not all cultures regard the body of the departed as just meat. We wouldn't be okay with treating the remains of our pets this way, right?
The aesthetic underclass whose remains generate profit and shareholder value, meanwhile, are those who cannot afford to die well: Tissue banks source their donations from those living and dying in poverty: The spine purchased by the Reuters journalist was traced to a young man whose body was donated by his parents, who couldn’t afford a burial or cremation.
I hadn't even thought of the wealth inequality and exploitative angle. That poor family. The rich already treat us like working cattle, but now they're even buying and selling us like meat.
I already knew my dead body could be sold for military research, and I'm kind of okay with that. Grafting corpse fat feels weird, but I'm also not sure I should care? When I die, my body will...
I already knew my dead body could be sold for military research, and I'm kind of okay with that. Grafting corpse fat feels weird, but I'm also not sure I should care?
When I die, my body will become a lifeless corpse. If it's useful to someone, I'm glad. As long as my next of kin can still go through whatever funerary rites help their grief.
As someone who followed my mother's wishes for her body to be donated for science, I felt at peace with it because it felt like her undertaking one last virtuous act as she left this place. But...
As someone who followed my mother's wishes for her body to be donated for science, I felt at peace with it because it felt like her undertaking one last virtuous act as she left this place. But the thought of her body being sold for parts to make someone a profit makes me feel a little flicker of helpless rage. Maybe that's what did happen to her. I can't ever know, really. But humans being sold for parts the way that other animals are is an incredibly dangerous thing. The fact that homo sapiens is just another animal should lead us to treat other animals more kindly, not treating the most vulnerable people among us like cuts of meat.
It's probably a great thing you don't. Ancient kings spent way too much time and money caring and it's all very stupid and suffering making isn't it? But I'm just trying to tease out my own "why...
not sure I should care?
It's probably a great thing you don't. Ancient kings spent way too much time and money caring and it's all very stupid and suffering making isn't it? But I'm just trying to tease out my own "why is this gross to me".
I care about my anonymized data being bought and sold and resold for unregulated profit. No I don't want to help train your bots even though I don't need those clicks and key presses anymore. I don't like words that I typed getting scraped for LLM. Oh! What if, you're a famous person and then whenever you vacate a seat, or toss any garbage, it gets auctioned off for perverts to do werid stuff to?
Maybe not so much caring in a "I'm gone I'm not using this anyway" way, but more "I don't like that kind of profiteering and kinda creeps me out"?
There's an episode of the (imo stellar) podcast Swindled that talks about body brokers. It's rough. These people buy and sell body parts under the name of science only to try and make a buck....
There's an episode of the (imo stellar) podcast Swindled that talks about body brokers. It's rough. These people buy and sell body parts under the name of science only to try and make a buck.
"Episode 84. The Body Broker (Megan Hess)" if you're interested. Not necessarily an easy listen.
Shall I add the tag "necrocosmetics" is is that too much?
When human bodies are treated with less Dignity than lettuce. I know that most western people think of the body as just a shell, just dirt who cares. I used to think so. But it's worth remembering that not all cultures regard the body of the departed as just meat. We wouldn't be okay with treating the remains of our pets this way, right?
I hadn't even thought of the wealth inequality and exploitative angle. That poor family. The rich already treat us like working cattle, but now they're even buying and selling us like meat.
I already knew my dead body could be sold for military research, and I'm kind of okay with that. Grafting corpse fat feels weird, but I'm also not sure I should care?
When I die, my body will become a lifeless corpse. If it's useful to someone, I'm glad. As long as my next of kin can still go through whatever funerary rites help their grief.
As someone who followed my mother's wishes for her body to be donated for science, I felt at peace with it because it felt like her undertaking one last virtuous act as she left this place. But the thought of her body being sold for parts to make someone a profit makes me feel a little flicker of helpless rage. Maybe that's what did happen to her. I can't ever know, really. But humans being sold for parts the way that other animals are is an incredibly dangerous thing. The fact that homo sapiens is just another animal should lead us to treat other animals more kindly, not treating the most vulnerable people among us like cuts of meat.
It's probably a great thing you don't. Ancient kings spent way too much time and money caring and it's all very stupid and suffering making isn't it? But I'm just trying to tease out my own "why is this gross to me".
I care about my anonymized data being bought and sold and resold for unregulated profit. No I don't want to help train your bots even though I don't need those clicks and key presses anymore. I don't like words that I typed getting scraped for LLM. Oh! What if, you're a famous person and then whenever you vacate a seat, or toss any garbage, it gets auctioned off for perverts to do werid stuff to?
Maybe not so much caring in a "I'm gone I'm not using this anyway" way, but more "I don't like that kind of profiteering and kinda creeps me out"?
There's an episode of the (imo stellar) podcast Swindled that talks about body brokers. It's rough. These people buy and sell body parts under the name of science only to try and make a buck.
"Episode 84. The Body Broker (Megan Hess)" if you're interested. Not necessarily an easy listen.