An Anatomist Considers Overflow at the Boundaries of Being a Person

Abstract

In dealing with the body of a deceased individual, the anatomist has to decide whether this individual is to be treated as a person. One approach is to gain insights from those who are definitely persons--healthy children and adults--and work toward those in which there is uncertainty and ambiguity, in this instance, the deceased. The same applies at the other end of life when dealing with embryos and fetuses. In both cases, marginal persons are given the benefit of the doubt, using the concept of "overflow." *An analysis is undertaken of the treatment of the deceased: initially, of the recently deceased; then assessing approaches to human remains from the remote past; and finally, the troubling status of dissected plastinated bodies, "plastinates." Against this background, attention moves to ways of approaching embryos. Following an overview of a range of theological insights into embryonic existence, attention is paid to the heterogeneity of blastocysts, the significance of their immediate environment, and their place within the broader human community. Reference is also made to the advent of synthetic embryos and the challenge they will present for a notion of personhood. An attempt is made to assess where these ambiguous versions of ourselves fit into the priorities of the human community, and whether an approach based on the notion of "overflow" will provide helpful pointers.