{"id":21453,"date":"2015-08-17T11:23:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T17:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=21453"},"modified":"2015-08-18T10:30:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T16:30:53","slug":"showing-dead-bodies-reality-or-bad-taste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/showing-dead-bodies-reality-or-bad-taste\/","title":{"rendered":"Showing Dead Bodies: Reality or Bad Taste?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"K2<\/a>
K2 Memorial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When is it acceptable to show a picture of dead body that is decomposing, ambulance<\/a> disfigured, or disturbing to a viewer? Especially if it is somewhat recognizable by friends or family, unexpectedly?<\/p>\n

In my sport of climbing, this situation has become more commonplace thus I wanted to explore it a bit in this post.<\/p>\n

With the Internet, we are exposed, often unknowingly or without warning,\u00a0to seeing all sorts of graphic scenes from torture to executions to accidents. To state the obvious, some of\u00a0the most popular movies and television shows exploit this morbid curiosity. Producers and viewers rationalize it as not being “real” since it was on TV or a movie screen.<\/p>\n

With so many cell phone cameras taking pictures of every event, there seems to be no filter as anyone with the picture has the capability to post on forums, private websites, sell\u00a0them to media outlets and more. Sadly, these posts seem to attract the morbid curious thus driving traffic and revenue from advertising to the outlet.<\/p>\n

“Reality”\u00a0on K2<\/h3>\n

A recent case in point was from the adventure Mike Horn while on K2.<\/p>\n

Mr. Horn is a well respected adventure with a huge loyal following. He attempted the world\u2019s second highest mountain and second most deadly in July 2015, K2. He and a small team pushed hard, made a great effort, but were\u00a0stopped by heavy snow. In fact no one summited K2 in 2015 making it four of out the last six years without a summit thus demonstrating just how difficult K2 can be.<\/p>\n

Upon his return to civilization, he posted on Facebook a well done 3 minute video of his effort. As the video showed him\u00a0discussing how deadly K2 can be, the picture shifted to a decapitated\u00a0head of\u00a0a climber for 2 seconds – more than enough time to see a disfigured mass with hair, eyes, a skewed mouth – and\u00a0the impression of a human\u00a0who died in great pain.<\/p>\n

It was found between Base Camp and Advanced Base Camp suggesting the death had happened higher up on the mountain and brought lower through the flow\u00a0of multiple avalanches that occurred this year.<\/p>\n

Outrage from Friends and Family<\/h3>\n

A collective cry of outrage began from friends and family of climbers who had died on K2. Their basic argument was that Mr. Horn was insensitive to post such an image.<\/p>\n

Sequoia Di Angelo<\/a>, who lost her brother, Denali, and father Marty Schmidt in 2013 on K2 posted this on her’s\u00a0and Mr. Horn\u2019s Facebook pages:<\/p>\n

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You have children correct? Please ask your daughter how she would feel if this was your head decomposing on the mountain and was put on a promotional video from another climbers expedition. Now over 87,000 people have viewed this morbid footage. This horrific image will be indelibly imprinted in my mind. Is nothing sacred anymore?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another climber, Canadian <\/span>Louis Rousseau<\/a>, said this in part in an open letter posted on several websites<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been climbing for almost 25 years now and my first high altitude expedition was when you did your\u00a0six-month solo traverse of the South American continent in 1997 about 18 years ago. During all those years, I lost friends in the mountains; I saw families crying for the loss of their own child.\u00a0I also saw the bodies of climbers and even parts of them. When possible, I put them away so other climbers could not take pictures of them. With a short prayer, it was the I could do to show respect. What you did was the complete opposite approach and behaviour.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Rousseau\u00a0summed up what many felt with this powerful sentence:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Imagine if it was the head of your own child lying right there on the snow. People take picture and filming. Did you lost some part of your sensibility with all your popularity and media exposure?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Horn took down the video, saying he and his colleagues considered the impact but\u00a0went ahead with the post.\u00a0 <\/span>In part, he posted this on his Facebook<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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I do value everyone\u2019s opinion, being accused of being disrespectful towards the dead and their families is, of course, a matter of opinion. However, I do apologize if I offended anyone who lost loved ones and do not see life, and death, in the same way as I do. So we have removed the video from Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I learned years ago that if you really mean\u00a0to apologize, you never use the word “if”. Then he went further to justify his decision to post the video in the first place:<\/span><\/p>\n

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When I die doing what I love, I die a happy man. My daughters and family will be happy for me, my spirit leaves my body that becomes old and useless and when my spirit is released it will roam the world with freedom and are finally released from the body that ties me down.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Horn, sponsored by Mercedes Benz, has over 115,000 likes on his Facebook page and receives global publicity during his adventures from a large and loyal set of followers. His video had received thousands of likes and shares before it was removed.\u00a0 <\/span>The horse was out of the barn.<\/p>\n

His \u201capology\u201d received 3,618 likes and was shared 195 times. In reviewing the 267 comments, about 170 were supportive of Mr. Horn\u2019s video, 60 were negative and the rest made no sense to me as they had not seen the video \u2026<\/p>\n

These are few of the more thoughtful comment and are representative of the many:<\/p>\n

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