RSVP for the After-Life Party, or What to Do in the "Real" Retirement

A decade ago, the Kass court asserted strong support for planning well ahead of time with regard to the disposition of embryos by concluding that previous agreements ought to be presumed valid and binding, and what's more, the court found such contracts corral expensive and drawn-out litigation, provide a framework for the effective operation of IVF programs, and minimize misunderstandings between the parties. The forethought and execution of prior agreements fall, for all intents and purposes, in the same family as Consent Forms and other Release Authorizations, that take the guesswork out of an individual(s) intention as to what (s)he would want done with various biological by-product. The only major differences being that the previous contract addressed by the Kass court focused on the agreement of two parties and the by-product had the potential for procreation.
That is all well and good. However, recent developments in scientific techologies are giving new meaning to the Boy Scout motto, "Be Prepared," by pushing the ethical envelope and asking us to gaze a bit longer into the crystal ball before deciding what to do with our leftovers. Since our course on Bioethics and the Law has already touched, and will probably revisit, the many pre- and potential human life issues of stem-cell research, genetic engineering, and IVF programs, I would like to turn our attention to the darker side of donation consentment; not the viable, hopeful, endless potential of procreation and life-sustainment...rather the stiff gift of a dead body. Besides, during a ten-day stetch that has seen the deaths of DFW, Paul Newman, Summer, and the American Economic System, I am finding myself donning a tad more black than usual and think a meeting at the cemetery gates more apropos. So without further ado, let's let the wake begin...allow me to introduce...
Herr Doktor Gunter von Hagens is the real, modern-day Dr. Frankenstein who invented and patented a technique for preserving biological tissue and body specimens known as plastination. Since founding the Institute of Plastination in the medieval university fortress of Heidelberg in 1993, von Hagens has overseen other plastination centers in the most remote research areas of Bishkek, Krgyzstan (google earth that one) and Dalian, China. Herr Doktor has also performed televised autopsies and cadaver dissections while wearing his trademark costume: a black fedora and cape.
In spite of the creepy, Bela Legosi showmanship, von Hagen is most famous for his controversial Koerperwelten ("Body Worlds") exhibitions that show a circus of plastinated cadavers enjoying routine, everyday poses in their skinless, flayed and dissected honesty. Yours truly first witnessed the gruesome cabinet of curiousity in 2002 in London, where mile long lines waited outside an Art Gallery in Bankside to see what most didn't really want to see...what the body looks like while it does what it does everyday. That is, one cadaver is playing chess (...and winning), another equestrian cadaver is mounted atop a hideless horse, there's a cadaverina pirouetting, and still another cadaverunner finishing a marathon in all his veiny glory. The morbid absurdity runneth over however, when attendants come face to face with a cadaver, fist under chin, assuming the position of Rodin's Thinking Man. The subsequent sick smile is quickly wiped off every face with teutonic precision around the next wall as a room full of plastinated pregnant women cadavers at varying trimesters and jarred fetuses showing one week olds, four week olds and so on were displayed. Leave it to the Germans for a real party faux-pas.
Having lasted longer than I would ever had expected, I left shaking my head with the full realization that Body Worlds would never make it across the Atlantic.
I was wrong. It has toured the States, and on limited publicity, haunted the halls of Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry. I went again, this time with my own students at the U of C and couldn't help thinking that it was a toss-up between the exhibition and the U of C campus as to which had more signs of life.

How does any of this relate to consent forms or Bioethics or the legal implications surrounding previous contractual agreements?

Well, for the past four years, our von Hagen has been dogged by a slew of legal proceedings that started as a result of his showmanship getting the better of him; he photographed plastinated corpses late at night all over Hamburg, including the Reeperbahn (the red-light district). Is it still necrophilia when the dead are doing the come-hithering? The charges in Hamburg included the serious offense of disturbing the dead. Additional proceedings against the good doctor were lodged in Siberia regarding a strange shipment of 60 corpses to Heidelberg that had little in the way of paperwork. 2004/2005 brought legal accusations that von Hagen had illegally received and plastinated several hundred corpses from prisons, psychiatric institutions and hospitals from China and Kyrgyzstan, most if not all without the notification of the respective families.

After some ridiculous google searching, during which I actually typed, "plasticate my dead, rotting body," I found the following consent form:

http://www.bodymobil.de/Downloads/Englisch/BD_Consent_ENG_euro_120208.pdf

Surprisingly, I found the consent form inclusive in that it reasonably addressed the inevitable concerns brought by family members, or others who would rather not know their loved one is touring the world as the resident? piano player in von Hagen's traveling band. In fact, it's the most interesting and bizarre consent form I could find that carried at least the pretense of being legally binding. Still, it raises the question that if plastination is going to claim the bodies of fellow humans, do it bear the responsibility not to make a mockery out of their situation by posing them in often ridiculous and laughable poses? Should GvH include a checklist of the types of activities the future dead would care to be engaged in? "No" to mixing guacamole, "Yes" to playing the guitar..."Yes" to Giacometti..."No" to the Statue of Liberty.

There was a better piece published in the Reader but here's a link to the basic premise:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/09/061009ta_talk_friend

Del Close, a fixture of the Chicago theatre-scene, wanted desperately to donate his skeleton, and more importantly, his skull, to the stage. Of course, the greatest gig for a skull would have to be Hamlet's Gravedigger Scene but really, how picky is a skull going to be?

For those of you familiar with the story, you know Close's intentions and wishes were not fulfilled due to legal obstacles and the absence of proper consent and authorization forms. I don't know about you, but I am definitely going to make sure I get my papers in order so my great-grandkids can see my onstage for the Mastodon (Reunion) tour in 2058 as a stage-prop, the best plastinated drummer in rock'n'roll history!

JWD