It turned out it was what it looked like
Years ago, I attended a party with a friend. The apartment was high above the sea with a big curving balcony. Everything was smoked glass, dim lights and people believing they were too sophisticated for words

In the centre of the main room stood a tall, circular glass case, filled with object d'art on glass shelves. My friend (who wasn't unlike Mark Strong in the Long Game ) had been invited as a living item of interest, I think, seeing he was the opposite of the city banking crowd there. He'd made the effort and was wearing a suit and tie. He wanted to do justice to the host, who'd invited him. Basically the host had been slumming it when he met my friend and must have thought my friend would amuse the others

Friend spotted a glass container in the spot-lit glass case. He moved closer, said nothing for several minutes, staring at the container intently. Finally he asked the host in what I knew to be a dangerous tone of voice, 'Geoff --- this isn't what I think it is, is it ? '

Host gave a snuffle-chuckle. ' Yes, a nursing friend of my old girlfriend gave it to me. Unusual, eh ? '

It was a foetus. Would have fitted into my friend's hand. Floating there in fluid in the glass container, tiny and white, spot-lit for the amusement of the sophisticated set. Not a friend in the world

My friend opened the circular display case and extracted the foetus in its container. He looked at it for a long time, saying nothing. I realised later, he'd been praying. By now, the chatter had died. Everything was quiet. People were looking at him as if he were a monkey in a cage. You could hear them saying to themselves, ' Oh, look how bad mannered he is, touching the ornaments '.

Speaking to himself, he said, ' This is wrong '. Looked at the foetus again then went out onto the balcony - paused a moment - then threw it far out to sea.

He came inside. Gave the host a look as if to ask, ' You have a problem with that ? ' Host didn't. We left
(Miss B3thpot, Sun 12 Dec 2010, 23:48, 13 replies)

Could have said:

'About your little foetus,
Words alas defeat us,
A better place to show it?
'Neath the bucket for the Moet
(roysin, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 0:24, closed)

Moet.?"?!
Dom Pon Charles.
(Surfeit, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 4:30, closed)

but that doesn't rhyme
A far better place than Carl's?
'Neath the bucket for the Dom Pon Charles

Is just silly.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 8:15, closed)

Human remains
Assuming that the story is true, let me just play the devils advocate here.

My wifes late father was a medical doctor, a radiologist. Being a medical professional his attitude to the human body was a bit more, erm.., straightforward than for the rest of us. For instance, he owned a human skull. The skull belonged to an (American) woman who had given her body up for science after her dead. The "science" consisted now of being played with by my (then 11-year-old) wife and her giggling friends. Also she was given a microscope for her birthday. And her dad frequently supplied her with blood and liver samples from the hospital to look at in her microscope. When my wife told me that, i pointed out the ethical problems in using parts from freaking PEOPLE as toys, but she just shrugged. Being a medical doctors daughter, she just couldn't see the problem.

(Once i had a flatmate who studied to become a physiotherapist. She owned a human hand (to study the bones), which she had legally purchased from India.)
(Robotnik, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 9:51, closed)

that sounds very typical, most people in the medical profession spend their time looking at dead cells and matter, which seems odd when you consider they are meant to be treating thinking living human beings. Gives some perspective on explaining the development of their perceptions and mind set.
(Miss B3thpot, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 13:52, closed)

As a fresh researcher
I find reading about Alzheimer's all day depressing, and I don't even have to deal with any people. All I can say is I'm developing a rather morbid sense of humour already, and a certain emotional detachment to descriptions of mouse brain slices, human brains, etc. If I need that to cope then I can only imagine what doctors who deal with patients end up developing to cope. Still, a sad story though.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 15:14, closed)

A friend of mine
Is an orthopedic surgeon,who specializes in the knee and shoulder joints and in particular teaching fresh faced young surgeons how to do go about mending said items and as a result often finds himself having to transport "samples " from one hospital to another.He told me once of a time he got pulled over for speeding ( For he liked the fast) and the copper decided to give the car the once over.He said the copper almost fainted when he opened the cooler box marked medical samples ,only to find a fresh pair of knees from a recently deceased cadaver .

I know he sometimes reads the B3ta and can tell it better than me....amongst many other gory tales .
( bane, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 22:59, closed)

so throwing it in the sea was better, then?
i do not understand.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 15:27, closed)

I'd have a fucking problem with it.
I wonder how he'd feel if he invited me to his place and I came around and smashed all the shit he had that didn't conform to my ethical beliefs?
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 15:49, closed)

!
If story = true then
Click
Else
Space Monkeys
End If
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 16:26, closed)

Buchenwald isn't on the sea, is it?
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-lampshade-that-drives-its-owners-mad-strange-truth-behind-20th-centurys-most-disturbing-object-2117357.html
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Mon 13 Dec 2010, 22:22, closed)

Fucking hell
Not the old Buchenwald-human-skin-lampshade chestnut again, I'm surprised they didn't drag up the human fat soap nonsense too.
Maybe at Ed Gein's house.....
(Rsoles, Wed 15 Dec 2010, 11:30, closed)

For fuck's sake
It's only a foetus.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 15 Dec 2010, 9:25, closed)