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venetia_sassyJust finished watching Bodysnatchers of New York and wow. That was an amazing example of how people can rationalise their own illegal actions.
The format of the documentary was interesting. I'd managed to miss the case in the news so I had no idea of the details or the outcome and at first the details the DA seemed so appalled by left me blinking and going, you really know nothing about the funeral industry, do you? Read a description of embalming sometime!
And the way the shots were set up, it didn't show if someone was in gaol. It was only as the documentary progressed and more details emerged that the camera drew back and showed a person's surroundings. It was very clever.
I'm not remotely appalled bu the idea of tissue harvesting, any more than I'm horrified by organ donation. But consent is vital. Screening is vital. And I am so sorry for those people whose trust in the funeral homes was violated and for those people now living with damaged or diseased transplants. I would also like to know what happened to the various funeral home directors involved.
I wasn't involved in organising my father's funeral. Call it a coping mechanism, whatever, but I ordered Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death Revisited soon after. It was fascinating and quite horrifying, the way death and grief have been commercialised. (I wish there was an Australian equivalent of the book. I still don't know how it works here.) Illegal bone and tissue harvesting was the next step, I guess.
Interesting article on the subject (if a trifle florid and sensational to begin with.)
The documentary is available online.
The format of the documentary was interesting. I'd managed to miss the case in the news so I had no idea of the details or the outcome and at first the details the DA seemed so appalled by left me blinking and going, you really know nothing about the funeral industry, do you? Read a description of embalming sometime!
And the way the shots were set up, it didn't show if someone was in gaol. It was only as the documentary progressed and more details emerged that the camera drew back and showed a person's surroundings. It was very clever.
I'm not remotely appalled bu the idea of tissue harvesting, any more than I'm horrified by organ donation. But consent is vital. Screening is vital. And I am so sorry for those people whose trust in the funeral homes was violated and for those people now living with damaged or diseased transplants. I would also like to know what happened to the various funeral home directors involved.
I wasn't involved in organising my father's funeral. Call it a coping mechanism, whatever, but I ordered Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death Revisited soon after. It was fascinating and quite horrifying, the way death and grief have been commercialised. (I wish there was an Australian equivalent of the book. I still don't know how it works here.) Illegal bone and tissue harvesting was the next step, I guess.
Interesting article on the subject (if a trifle florid and sensational to begin with.)
The documentary is available online.
