Word: fleshed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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ESSAY Barbara Ehrenreich argues that flesh is for fun, not flaying...
...Real life is filled with serial killers, mass murderers and sickos of all degrees. Much of the 20th century, it could be argued, has been devoted to ingenious production and disposal of human corpses. But the scary thing is not that eye gougings and vivisections and meals of human flesh may, occasionally, happen. The scary thing, the thing that ought to make the heart pound and the skin go cold and tingly, is that somehow we find this fun to watch...
...down. No wonder we love heroes and mega-villians like RoboCop and the Terminator, in whom all soft, unreliable tissue has been replaced by metal alloys. Or that we like reading (even in articles deeply critical of the violence they manage to summarize) about diabolical new uses for human flesh. It's been, let's face it, a big disappointment. May as well feed it to the rats or to any cannibalistically inclined killer still reckless enough to indulge in red meat...
...Europe, that theme from a late-night horror movie is merely a matter of supply and demand. There are thousands more patients in need of kidneys, corneas, skin grafts and other human tissue than donors; therefore, big money can be made on a thriving black market in human flesh...
Elsewhere, authorities are working to bring the flesh market under control. Britain passed a law in 1989 forbidding organ sales after a Turk complained that he had been lured to Britain with a job offer, sent to a hospital under a false pretext, then anesthetized and relieved of one of his kidneys. Germany is pushing through a similar law, spurred in part by an abortive offer from a Soviet medical institute to provide German patients with Russian kidneys for a fee of $68,570 -- payable in deutsche marks...