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What are you looking at?

Pregnant Uterus

[Last modified: March, 24 2019 02:09 PM]

Here is a uterus, with a large non-cancerous tumour on the right (also known as a fibroid). It was removed during surgery, at some point in history between 1853-1956. Inside this dissected specimen there is also a fetus that was accidentally aborted as a result of this process. This suggests neither the mother nor doctor were aware of the pregnancy. Our attention is immediately drawn to a life that was never lived, despite the main reason for the specimen’s existence being the amorphous fibroid and not the fetus. The specimen is suspended within a coffin-like transparent box filled with Kaiserling preservative. Frozen in time between life and death, this mysterious specimen is purposefully displayed to trigger a chain of reactions and thoughts…

How does it make you feel? Have you considered the emotional and ethical complexity of this particular medical situation? Have you taken a moment to contemplate the difficulty of diagnosis in the past when there were limited tools and knowledge? And now when you look at the specimen what do you see first… the fetus or the fibroid?

Object details

Accession number: 17002

Materials: Animal tissue, preserved in Kaiserling fluid and fixed in an acrylic case. 

Dimensions: 12-14-week-old fetus, approx 5-9cm long.

Source: Pathology collection, UCL Pathology Museum. Former owner unknown.

With this painting the viewer tends to look at the right hand side first. The gaze is attracted there by the light colours, as opposed to the dark dull left half. The contrast between the fresh, pretty face of the maiden and the skull reminds us that death is inevitable, in latin “memento mori” (you can read it on the paper). The extinguished candle and the hourglass also convey this message. The roses on the right hand side symbolize the shortness and fragility of life, as they will wilt. This type of artworks is called vanitas. The term stems from the first lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’ It expresses that worldly pleasures and goods are worthless. The snake is a biblical symbol for temptation, temptation for short-term pleasures for instance.
The difference with the uterus is that on the latter one stares at the baby with morbid curiosity, meanwhile on this painting we intuitively try to ignore the left hand side.

Unknown (Austrian School) (18th century). A Vanitas still life. [Oil on panel].

This video simply explains what a uterine fibroid is.

This video comprehensively reviews the methods and processes employed today for abortion.

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1 Comment

  1. Katerina 16th July 2021

    20,000 kids die every single day due to preventable hunger and disease while the greedy fly into space. Thousands of newborns are tossed into landfills around the globe every day because their families cannot sustain them, or they are the discards of sex trafficking. Thousands of children are sexually assaulted regularly by religious leaders, and many commit suicide. This particular fetus that was accidentally “aborted” is just one of many that nature doesn’t care about, and there is no deity that cares for it either. If anything, it was spared a lifetime of learning hate towards its fellow man.

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