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eyes that never opened
Published: 2010-04-29 22:35:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 28696; Favourites: 697; Downloads: 1
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Before you read my comment, I'd like you to see what you are thinking when you see this, so your first impression won't be affected by my or other people's thoughts...I had no comment written for this before getting a DD, but someone suggested I should.
Some of you who have chosen to comment are taking this image in scope of pro-life and pro-choice issue. It would definitely be a suiting image for that in my opinion too.
If you're curious, this was found in a medical building of my university where they had done dissections of people who had given consent. It is to see what a fetus looks like in different stages of life. I'm not a medical student and I found this room by accident when I was taking shelter from rain.
I had a lot of thoughts that flashed in my mind but one of the things that lingered while I was taking the shot was this poem, as I've already written in another similar image:
Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.
You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate.
There are wheatfields and mountain passes,
and orchards in bloom.
At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight
the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding."
You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up
in the dark with eyes closed.
Listen to the answer.
There is no "other world."
I only know what I've experienced.
You must be hallucinating.
-Rumi
Now Mowlana Rumi was a mystic Sufi; he believed in another world after death and and he wrote this as an analogy of those who denied that. But this could mean in more ways than that. It could relate to our lack of experience to any other "world" hidden from us. I believe there could be many types of veils... It could be the world inside another human being, another heart. It could be about belief of God or lack of. I'm an astronomy student, so my thoughts also go to black holes, possibility of parallel universe or higher dimensions, or such.
So really, I think we are all an embryo in a lot of ways.
As for the DD, I'm realizing the one image that I had the least part is chosen from my gallery. My thoughts go to the mother of this little one and the decisions she had to make, the father, all the other family or friends who were involved, the doctor and others who handled and took part in this little body to be there in that room...
Thank you ikai-zixie to have found this image, showing compassion and so much wonderment and suggesting it, and Timothy-Sim for picking it amongst many.
And if you've read so far thank you, I appreciate it...I hope you'll share your thoughts or feelings too...
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Comments: 915
I think being a medic can be rewarding and humbling at the same time...
Hmm, medical illustration...mix of biology and art --neat!
I've studied astronomy and physics.
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At first I found this as the DD suggested, chilling. But when I read your artist's comment, I understood what this photo meant to you. I really like how you worded it, and the poem.
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I really appreciate that you took time to read it...thank you
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No problem, I really like reading how artists come up with their ideas and concepts for their artwork.
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ItΒ΄s sad..amazing..sad..I donΒ΄t know, what to say..
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I know it can be hard to respond to...thank you for feeling this...
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It makes me think "If only..."
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Yes,
A very suiting saying for this...
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This gives me chills.
Not in any way relating to abortion though.
Just the picture itself...I feel like the eyes are gonna open or something.
But still, amazing photo.
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So it has a feeling of suspense? That's interesting....
Thank you so much!
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I feel sadness when I look at this picture because he never got to live in this world. And at the same time it feels a bit creepy that they have embryos in a glass containers at universities...
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Yes he had limited experience...
but a lot of us in this world also have limited experience.
I remember finding that room and being there alone for the first time--it is very creepy. You start to think all sorts of things about life and death.
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Yes, that's true.
I can understand that. I feels weird to see things like that being so well preserved since it usually decay.
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Sad... He/she is so... skinny, so dead and yet so lifelike...
It reminds me that I should check out what things are stored in the library of the university I go to. According to my dad my great great grandfather's brain is stored there...
It's a kind of sad picture, because to me it looks as if this fetus could have survived a normal birth.
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Wow, how strange to know of having a record of something like that!
I'm not sure, but it looks like so to me too...
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Yeah, hehe, he wrote dictionaries and people said he was a genius, so I guess that's why they decided to keep his brain. 
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He must have been a very patient man!
It's quite hard if he had to explain some words on his own...sometimes we feel the meaning of very basic words but it's so hard to explain them!
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Hehe, he was, he even wrote a story about a captain who travelled through the dictionary and experienced things that were related to words in the dictionary. His son became a captain himself, so I suppose it was quite a fun reading! ^^
I know! Well for him it must have been really hard, according to what I've read he wrote Norway's first dictonary (I come from Norway), and when there are no other dictionaries to refer to... that must be really difficult! His office was full of words (literally), he collected words - wrote them down and put them up on his walls. I wish I had known him, he seemed like quite a personality. ^^
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He could have been president.
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President, a lone man who lives in the mountains, a genius, a failure, a scientist, someone stuck in 9 to 5 job working where he doesn't want to work, a beggar, a millionaire, a cancer patient, a doctor.....
Who truly knows but God?
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Beautiful.. Yet so terribly sad. He (I think) looks like an Asian boy, maybe.
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Yes, I think so too.
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Everything in this world is ugly and beautiful, time stood still when I saw this. It was like getting hit by a freight train at full speed. To be in a jar on display, I know that it's for science and medicine but this horrifies me in so many ways I mean if I'm not mistaken there's a finger print on the glass and that makes it even more disturbing to me.
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That does look like finger prints...I didn't notice that...
How you describe it makes it very grave...yet I'm glad you describe it so, because many seem immune to such things sometimes.
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to me this reminds me of my son.. I lost him at 4months pregnant..believe it or not,he/she in the womb at FOUR MONTHs..looks about like this.. Looking at this picture,my whole world goes still,my heartbeat rushes into my ear,Im transported from in front of my computer screen,into that hospital room again,I hold my son for the first and last time in my arms..
I feel love and hate for your picture..Needless to say,Your picture is EXCEPTIONAL.. GREAT WORK..
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I'm sorry that I've brought a hard memory, but your comment means a lot to me.
I hope what you have lost affect your life in a good way and that you'll have love in another form that brings you much joy
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i cried when i saw this picture....i simply cant agree with abortion no matter what people say about it. i believe a person has rights as soon as life is passed through them and life starts in the cell stage, that child was grown enough to have a heart and i see this as cruelty....im not judging those who agree with abortion or who have had them...i just dont support their decision nor will i ever.
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It might not have been an abortion.
Although I agree with you on the abortion tid bit.
I believe it's Murder, but we all have our opinions.
However it could have been a misscarriage and the mother thought about it and decided that her childs physical body could help students.
What most people fail to remember is, the body is a shell.
We are within.
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ok i think its cool and disgusting and sad at the same time. but haha that is soo awesome!
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There is much of it in the world, that when we see it for a second, we don't feel attached to it too much. But it is grave still.
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Though it is scary to see this.. its something that does happen.
It left a impression on me that hasnt in a while. Thanks for that.
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Oh God, this is the most disturbing pic I've seen in a while. Everytime I look at that small poor thing, something breaks in me. Amazing picture!
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This is so sad... I can't even express my feelings accurately with words... I don't have a problem with abortion as long as it is the mother's decision and it would be a problem for her to have the child, but this is just.... I don't know.... depressing. Seeing such innocence sitting there lifeless and preserved just gives me a whirlpool of thoughts and feelings. It's incredible how much a simple snapshot can say and do.
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"So really, I think we are all an embryo in a lot of ways."
This line hit me even more so than Rumi's poem, and that's saying something as he's my favourite. I think that line is an extremely profound and humble truth that sums up human existence.
Other than that, I'm quite speechless. Excellent work. Excellent thoughts.
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I read what you said, and to skip getting into a spam-fight I'm just going to ignore what others have already written--due to that, forgive me if I'm stating something someone has already stated. I am in the medical field, so my first thoughts were not of shock or even pro-choice/life issues, though I did immediately wonder, "Oh great, who is going to start what about this?" Which is kind of sad. Anyway, photo wise, for a snap taken while you were trying to get out of the rain, amazing. I love the lighting, you were able to focus & get such great detail.
due to the detail I actually did start wondering about back story, thankfully, I didn't go to abortion (though anyone who knows about abortions should realize this is not an aborted being). I got really sad thinking about a still birth, or even a mother dying while giving birth and the baby not making it either. One of those catch 20 situations we all wish wouldn't happen. I imagined the mother on the table, body already limp with death while doctors dove into her bulging belly to retrieve a panicked life within who could no longer get sustenance to live. Maybe the baby was already dead though, and the mother gave her life in hopes of being able to save her baby, alas....here the baby is in his jar, I wonder if the mother is part of an exhibit somewhere...or possible on the body farm in Tennessee.
I find these medical situations so fascinating. Again, great photo, and thank you for allowing me to brew up so many thoughts.
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thats so crazy, finding that in a building one day!
i hope that i come across such an amazing discovery some day.re
its rather creepy.
that might just be me though. im kinda creeped out of the whole process( pregnant women untill it comes out)
so i was a bit "wtf...what a weird sculpture to make!" then i read the blurb under it.
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Wow. I agree with abortion, but this has made me think.
Not change my mind, but think.
I suppose that's what makes this piece so amazing.
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This is Amazing. How Touching the poem, yet breaking for the Embryo.
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this is truly great and powerful. i'm not quite sure what i believe in terms of religion, but i love this.
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Just out of curiosity, did you get any consent from the place where this fetus was to post pics of it? I know in most dissection labs for med students, pictures of the cadavers aren't allowed and I am pretty sure this would fall under the same category as that.
Even though the cadavers are donated to science doesn't mean that they don't get the dignity and respect of not having pics of their dead bodies floating around the internet (unless they consent to it, like the Bodies exhibit)
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i like how you blend this deviation with short poem from Mowlana Rumi on your comment
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I saw something similiar to this at the BODIES exhibit when it came through my city. They had a room where they showed different aborted or stillborn fetuses, and all were preserved similiar to this one. There were birth defects in there as well, which was strange to look at.
It really stays with you, though. And I think that's important; whatever your stance is on abortion, I think that everyone can agree on the fact that it is not easy.
Nice shot, btw. You managed to get all the detail in there without much background at all.
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I think the "this is the face of abortion" sentiments are invalid. No one knows what happened to this fetus except that it wasn't born alive.
Also, as far as the whole pro this and pro that subject, I'm pro choice. I've said this before and I'll say it again, who are we to put ourselves above any other animals on earth? Animals kill each other. That's reality. Abortion is a part of nature just as much as otherwise live birth. I'm not saying abortions the definite answer but either way, its still nature. And no one has a right to say what is part of nature, and what is not.
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