This point seems first to thin or seems too subtle

That should shut the living with the dead body Random news, clear answers to this crucial question just be provided the same week. Two sources: an important decision of justice, rendered on 16 September, by the first Civil Chamber of the Court of cassation, and a notice of the national ethics Advisory Committee.

The decision of the Court of cassation is remarkable, because it is based on ethical, and principles not only legal, to declare that are ultimately illegal, in France, exhibition of human corpses "plastinés." In 2009, exhibit "our Body", organized in Paris by the Encore Events company, had been banned, and the judgment affirmed on appeal, but for another reason: the display body were probably those of sentenced to Chinese dead, free consent remained the least questionable.

This time, the highest French Court insists on the fact that this type of exposure is contrary to article 16-1-1 of the civil Code, stipulating that "the remains of deceased persons" should be treated with "respect, dignity and decency". However the human lives - perfectly preserved, made transparent by fluids replacement by silicone - were displayed in playful situations and postures. Each played the ball, others fired in the CRA or were jogging. However, on reflection, unworthiness is not in these actions, in themselves daily. It lies in the fact to refuse the shadow to the bodies of our fellow, depriving them of the night and the invisible. This point seems first to thin or seems too subtle. In fact, it is decisive.

Proof is, the opinion delivered by the national ethics Advisory Committee, the 111 published by the institution (see ). Exciting text, because it does not merely to reflect on the problem raised by these recent exhibitions. It broadens the debate, also addresses the issue of the fragments of human bodies exposed since the 19th century in various museums - whether Egyptian mummies or Maori heads. The opinion of the NEAC wisely apply the ancient test of the golden rule: don't do to others what you would not like it was you.

Would you really like that your mortal remains to make the bike in public Supporteriez you, sincerely, that your mother, your father, your loved ones the most intimate, are shown postmortem to entertain crowds in distracting If this is not the case, if Malay and repulsion invade you the idea, why then do you agree that the bodies of the other people old and distant, anonymous individuals and négligeables - are subjected to such treatment

By extending the reflection, it would happen to more radical lines. Should explain why a dark side is necessary for life and why see everything, everywhere and all the time, as you want to today, is neither desirable nor human. Even if it does not logically demonstrate, the right of the dead to rest, invisibility, to the tomb is as old as humanity. It is also clear that these laws - not written, eternal - that claims Antigone in Sophocles, prefers death to leave without tomb brother Polynices. On the other side, our time is worked in depth by the fantasy with the share of shadow.

We dream we become able to see everything absolutely - that it is the areas of the brain while he thinks, the lovers while they enjoy or the bodies while they lie. To the extent that we sometimes forget the word of Heraclitus: "Neither the Sun nor death can look in the face." It teaches us that the part of the world that we live in is held between pure clarity and black darkness - without that we are never full access to one or the other. It is not useless that in his own way the news the recalls.