Olivia Solon examines the ethics of bioart, which involves putting living tissue on display:
One area of ethical concern is how to dispose of the living tissue at the end of an exhibition. Once the pieces have been removed from the lab, they cannot be put back in because they are contaminated, Zurr explains. “So they need to be culled. We have a symbolic device to raise discussion — the killing ritual — where we invite audiences and curators to expose the tissue to the external environment and touch it and contaminate it.” The idea is to engage with people, involve them in the ethical decision-making and encourage them to understand some of the scientific pursuits being illustrated by the artworks, be it bioengineering or stem cell research.
(Photo from the Tissue Culture and Art Project's Victimless Leather project.)
The Dish 