I wonder how this choice could affect the loved ones that outlive me. But I haven’t decided whether I want to have children yet, and not knowing who may be a part of my future gives me pause about making this decision. What has held me back? Certainly, not a fear that I may one day regret this decision or change my mind-as José van Dijck explains, “to those wishing to donate their own body to science, plastination offers the possibility to unite posthumous altruism and-more egocentrically-eternal ‘life’” and I do not anticipate that my own narcissistic desire to remain a source of wonder and fascination after my demise will diminish anytime soon. But I haven’t gotten around to submitting them yet. I’ve even filled out the forms to become a Körperspender. I’ve looked into the process of donating my remains to Gunther von Hagens’ Institute for Plastination. I was awestruck by the beauty of the plastinates, human bodies transformed into works of art. Upon coming face to face with a skeleton in the collection of physician Charles White, the essayist Thomas de Quincey pondered, “Who was he? It is not every day that one makes the acquaintance of a skeleton and with regard to such a thing-thing, shall one say, or person?” To begin, a confession: I have wanted to donate my body to Body Worlds since I first attended an exhibit of the plastinated corpses while on a high school field trip over a decade ago.
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