Forum Nation Revived

Issue No. 22 Results: Option 2.

Results:

The tenet of free speech is held dear.
FliplineForum's Political Freedoms rose from Superb to World Benchmark.

Acclaimed yet controversial thespian Brian Venkman elicited shock (and not coincidentally, more than a little publicity) after performing Hamlet with the severed head of his recently deceased uncle taking the role of ‘Yorick’ in lieu of the usual fake skull. A debate has begun over proper respect for human remains, and whether the general public should be allowed to own them.

1: “DAH-ling, when I play the Oedipal Prince I want your rapt attention!” explains the pretentious actor, shaking his uncle’s left femur at you for emphasis. “Did not the jester’s head held aloft in my hand both capture and captivate your gaze? Was I not momentarily a solitary tableau vivant to behold and admire? A replica would have lacked authenticity, and the Art demands authenticity! Owning human bones should be perfectly legal for all, as should gathering any unclaimed remains. My wondrous panoply of accoutrements is not complete without these fragments of mortality!”

2: “I agree that owning cadavers should be legal, but it should be restricted solely to members of the medical and scientific community with stringent regulations to establish proper consent and to safeguard the proper use of the remains,” recommends Khethelo Coulson, a medical student and keen anatomist. “Human specimens are needed by archaeologists, doctors, transplant surgeons, researchers and the like. Letting a liver rot underground is just a waste.”

3: “What you people are failing to see is the enormous market gap!” giddily giggles entrepreneur Prudence Khan, gesturing and gesticulating at a nearby graveyard. “There’s a fortune of Flipcoins here in buried treasure! Let people pre-sell their future remains to forward-thinking companies, or let relatives do the same with the recently deceased, and we can turn cold stiff bodies into cold hard cash! Everybody with any body wins! The bereaved can dry their tears with banknotes, while we make accessories from real human ivory, and handbags from the finest human leather! Hmm... Leader, has anyone ever told you what lovely skin you have?”

4: “HERESY!” screams Really Revered Reverend Yuri Rios, who claims to be an ordained cleric of a religion you’ve never heard of. “Have all of you lost your minds? Do you understand what you are saying? When people die, they must be respectfully buried whole, otherwise in the afterlife they will be fragmented! Would you like to spend all eternity as a pile of loose body parts? I’m sure I wouldn’t! Do you want the restless shades of the dismembered haunting you? I’m sure I don’t! The dead must be allowed rest in peace, not pieces!”