L'exposition anatomique « Our Body » : une atteinte à la dignité du cadavre ?

The anatomical exhibition “Our Body” was staging cadavers, who had been “plastinated” through an industrial process, in lifelike poses. It was recently banned in our country, by a judicial decision and two notices have been formulated by the National Consultative Committee for Ethics (CCNE). The commercial purposes of the show and the doubts about the consents of the deceased have been widely advanced. But this exhibition is also often considered as a violation of the dignity and respect that are owed to dead human bodies. The “plastinates” are neither persons, nor objects, nor simple marketable materials. Thus, on which arguments is grounded the claim for this respect? The studies of the thoughts of some philosophers as well as of the French jurisprudence tend to show that the respect for the cadaver is a notion which is advanced in a sometimes contradictory way and with changing criteria.