Bangel wrote:
If you were horribly disfigured, would you want to be stuffed and hung in a museum, regardless of whether you had died or not?
It's a cat. And ya know, there are some people who do send their bodies off for research after they die. There's some terrifying art exhibit of chopped up people plastified floating around right now (REAL PEOPLE!) who are dead, that are on display and it's all done through donations (or it's supposed to have been, can't remember if that ones the one with the controversy or not). There are museums out there specifically for this thing, for people who have physical dissabilities.
And a lot of these people have said it's OK for themselves to be studied after death. So.
My heart for example, not the best heart in all the world, when I die, if it could help future generations, i'd be more then happy to give up my disfigured (lets behonest, thats what it is), and defected heart up for science, to be put on display if it would at all help future generations. And don't try the whole "it's a heart, not your face" thing. We could argue that my face is strange because my skull is so oblong, and thusly i'm disfigured, and no i'd have no problem with my head being on display either (this way... i'd always be watching!)
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Evisceration is a sign of respect.