On Moral Concepts - Human Trafficking

Note: The following articles and photos may be disturbing, so please be aware of them before reading.

Recently I saw a news that Arnold Putra, a rich second-generation Indonesian designer, made a handbag out of children's spines and crocodile tongues and sold them on the online store "Unconventional" for about $5,000. He claimed that the spines were " ethically sourced ". And come. I won't talk about whether it is legal to use a part of the human body to make a product for sale. Even if it is not illegal, does it mean that we have the right to do so?

There are many things that are not explicitly regulated or listed as illegal by law, but does it mean that there is nothing wrong with doing something that is not illegal? This has to be judged by the moral standards of ordinary people. The simplest example in life is jumping in line (hitting the tip) when queuing for a ride or shopping. I believe everyone has encountered it or may have done it themselves. This is the most common manifestation of disorder, but it does not constitute a crime, and it also Wouldn't anyone be so bored that they called the police for help because they were cut in line? Even if you call the police, the police won't care about such a small matter. This can only be done through the condemnation of others and the store owner to uphold justice. Of course, comparing the example of queue jumping with buying and selling human bodies, the severity of the two is far from the same. The purpose of this example is to illustrate that since everyone basically agrees that it is wrong to jump in the queue, why do some people think that there is no problem in buying and selling human bodies?

According to the online store, the handbag is made of 100% children's vertebrae and crocodile tongue . After the news was widely circulated and became a hot topic, someone sent a message to the online store to inquire about the source of the handbag material, and the online store's reply was, "As far as I know" the material is collected by the designer after traveling around the world, because he travels to so many places, even he himself is not sure where he collected it. WTF? How could someone forget where they bought a human vertebra . Afterwards, the designer seemed to realize that he was in trouble, so the handbag was removed from the online store, and the matter seemed to come to an end.

Later, I searched the Internet for information on buying and selling human bodies, and found that the market for human remains has long been prevalent, and buying human remains is surprisingly easy, as easy as going to Taobao, as long as you have the money. And there are many organizations that use human corpses to make money .

Sell Skull Art for Money

Since 2011, artist Zane Wylie has been searching for human skulls on eBay, engraving on the skulls, and selling them on his website to make money. The owner of the skulls knows that their skulls are carved into works of art and sold. What will happen? Feelings? It turns out that eBay has already stipulated that if human bones are used for medical purposes, human bones can be traded, but eBay has not strictly enforced this regulation, and there is no in-depth review mechanism for the identities of buyers and sellers and the use of human bones . Ordinary goods are no different . It was not until July 2016 that the sale of human bones was exposed by a paper in a scientific journal, and eBay completely banned the sale of human remains four days later, but the sale of human skulls is still ubiquitous on Facebook, Instagram and other online platforms .

Source: Human Skulls Are Being Sold Online, But Is It Legal?

Mother's body used as bomb test

An Arizona man donated the brain of his mother with Alzheimer's disease (dementia) to a medical institution for Alzheimer's research. He signed an agreement, and a few days later he received a wooden box containing most of his mother's ashes, but did not tell him where the other parts had gone. He didn't know the truth until three years later, when a reporter provided him with some files. It turned out that the agency only cremated one of his mother's hands, and sold the rest to the US military for about $6,000 for an explosion test . His mother's body had been blown up, and he was deeply saddened to learn of the incident. Later, the agency was revealed to have stored 10 tons of human remains, and its person in charge was convicted of illegal business operations. It's really dumbfounding to know that the remains of my loved ones have been blown up. This must be an indelible wound in my life.

Source: Man who donated his mother's body to an Arizona center for Alzheimer's research discovers it was sold on to the US Military for $6,000, strapped to a chair and blown up in 'blast test'

The Mystery of the Human Body

Needless to say, this is a world-famous exhibition using real corpses as specimens . It has been exhibited around the world for many years. The founder is the German anatomist Gunther von Hagens. bring him a good income. In 1998, he established a bio-plastination company in Dalian, China to process human corpses and make corpse specimens. However, the origin of the corpses has always been unknown . There are urban legends that the corpses are executed prisoners and Falun Gong practitioners from China. There is even a pregnant female specimen, who is said to be Bo Xilai's mistress, Zhang Weijie, a well-known female anchor of Dalian TV. It is rumored that Zhang Weijie disappeared from the world in 1998 because he was killed by Bo Xilai's wife Gu Kailai to make a human specimen. , and the Dalian Bio-Plastination Company was approved and registered by the then mayor of Dalian, Bo Xilai. In 2018, the Mysteries of the Human Body exhibition was held in Switzerland on the eve of being suspended because the organizers could not produce evidence of the origin of human specimens.

Source: Swiss city bans display of human bodies, fearing they were Chinese convicts and Falun Gong members

Summarize

If buying and selling human bodies is really used for medical and pathological research, and it contributes to all mankind, it is the so-called "silent teacher", I think this is no problem, but using human body trafficking as a business to make money, or to sell Buying human body collections for personal interest or showing off, or even processing and transforming human remains without the consent of the deceased, is disrespectful to the deceased and seriously undermines the moral bottom line that a person should have. I don't think any normal person would want to be taken naked for a world tour exhibition or for an explosion test after his or her parents or relatives die? Human remains are also human beings. Like you and me, they have thoughts and souls. You cannot "materialize" a corpse just because a person dies. You can sell the corpse as an item or display it as a work of art. Even the corpse should get it. respect of others.

Human society is constructed on the norms of moral values. It is precisely because human beings have moral values that they can respect each other, and have the ability to distinguish between good and evil and self-discipline, and become spiritual animals. If we always have to rely on the law to restrain us from doing wrong, what is the difference between us and beasts? Everything needs to have its rules, and everyone must follow them spontaneously, so that the society will be stable. It's like a small thing like queuing. If everyone in the world jumped in line because of selfishness and greed for a moment, can you imagine how chaotic the world would be? Human morality deserves our reflection.