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I admit I saw this first on FB RAT as a new example of using technology to allow more people to see something like museum artifacts, and show curators that they ought to allow their collections to be digitized. Jasper spoke right up and questioned the ethics of printing corpses. More chimed in. I know from my time there that the Smithsonian has hundreds if not thousands of individuals in bone cases, and some on display. Is displaying the dead legitimate or goulish? Think of those two well preserved 17th C bodies dug up recently.
http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/06/18...-printing/
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
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In the case of the Pompeii casting, I see no ethical issues regarding human remains. They aren't printing copies of bodies. They are printing scans of casts of where bodies used to be. There are several levels of abstraction involved there.
The only ethical issues may perhaps be around mispresentation of what the printings are. As the scanning and printing technologies advance, fakes and forgeries of actual artifacts may become an issue.
As for display of actual remains, there are valid arguments across the whole spectrum of the debate.
Personally, if anyone's interested in my skeleton when I'm done using it, just make sure it's wearing a cool hat and that my family gets a percentage of the gross. Pun intended.
Steve in WA
Pone hic aliqua ingeniosum.
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Hi, Richard
Whatever the medium might be, I see nothing wrong with the display of ancient bodily remains. In the really old days, archaeologists used drawings. Then came black and white photos. So a 3d scan simply brings the method of portrayal into the 21st century.
Alan J. Campbell
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb
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As a general principle I have no problem with it but in some instances it should not be done. Many Australian aborigines have strong objections to the public display of their ancestors. They even have taboos about speaking the name of those who have died.
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I have to admit I find the displaying in Museums(and art galleries) of corpses rather Ghoulish... I think a reconstruction in life is more appropriate, people deserve some kind of respect in death..
I have no problem with scientific analysis in the pursuit of knowledge, beliefs should be respected in this regard though...
In regard to Pompeii... I don't see a problem as the "bodies" are rather an impression left in the stone and not the corpses themselves as far as I'm aware.... though the content may well be disturbing for some..... an impression of a horrible death is not something I would particularly want to see....
Ivor
"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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Well, i have not objection. But the casts content inside a real human body. You find the hole, put the plaster in and it covers the skeleton, so inside the dried plaster cast, its the corpse.
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After I wrote this several updates on the Kennewick man skeleton were published, with DNA making a stronger link to early native American peoples than European, which I seem to remember was one possibility. Even after 10,000 years the native Americans in the area have fought to keep the bones away from scientists with the claim that one of their ancestors deserves better treatment than DNA tests and examination.
Still matters to some peoples what happens to bones and bodies.
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
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Would it have mattered to the people whose bodies these 3D casts represent I wonder?
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The Smithsonian up until about ten years ago had the body of some Philadelphia guy whose body had turned to soap displayed for years. He had a name and descendents, but not sure if they eventually complained or the body was disintegrating too fast in the lights. That was pretty grusome as it was an actual corpse with burial clothes and everythiing.
Richard Campbell
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These 3-D-prints are just the remnants transferred to an other medium. If that would be a problem, one should also have problems with fotos of them, drawings etc.
Christian K.
No reconstruendum => No reconstruction.
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.
