Yale senior Aliza Schvarts has just possibly created the most controversial senior thesis ever: According to The Yale Daily News, it's "a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself 'as often as possible' while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process."
In her defense, Schvarts claims that her goal was "to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body." Still, fellow students who sit on both sides of the abortion debate are shocked, and conservative Pro-lifers are already using her as an example of reckless abortion.
One member of a campus pro-life group, Jonathan Serrato, put it this way: "I feel that she's manipulating life for the benefit of her art, and I definitely don't support it," Serrato said. "I think it's morally wrong."
What do you think? Does part of our right to choose include manipulating the human body in such a way for art's sake? Or has she taken advantage of this right in an unethical way?
THIS JUST IN:
Apparently, everyone has been getting into a big tizzy for nothing. Yale just issued the following statement:
"Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman's body.
She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art. Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns."
Holy smokes, she really had us going there. Sorry but um, wasn't April Fool's Day like, a few weeks ago?
YET ANOTHER UPDATE:
Ooookkaaayyy, now Schvarts is protesting Yale's latest statement and claims that she did inject herself with semen and induce a miscarriage after all... Hmm. Wonder if they are trying to spin the negative publicity?
To read a student's perspective, see "College confessional: A Yale student reacts to the abortion art scandal."
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Yale student has multiple abortions in the name of art
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