“Bodies: The Exhibition” is the title of the spectacle. The words themselves don’t scare anyone off — we like to look at bodies, right? — until they realize just how literally accurate the title describes things.

These are plasticized but very real cadavers, of real people, and they’re really on display at Ala Moana Center, and for a really fat admission charge, too.

In theory there’s a facination with human physique that could be indulged here. Or so I thought, until I learned more of the particulars.

Specifically: It’s not really clear how these bodies were obtained from China. And even if some official gave permission, most decent people would agree that it wasn’t his or hers to give.

But what brought the picture into focus for me was, well, the picture. The one we ran in our newspaper.

It was a closeup of a cadaver, of the face. Yes, we can study the sinews and muscles and muse about how they all interconnect, but at the point where you’re looking into a face, it ceases being a academic exercise.

It’s inhumane. And just plain creepy that such a thing becomes a public amusement.

I know I won’t be able to walk through the door.

— Vicki Viotti 

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