Yale Art Student Lied About Lying

The Yale University student who claimed to have impregnated herself with donor sperm just so she could induce "miscarriages" for her art project now claims the project was real-- despite whatever she told Yale authorities.

However, the facts as she now tells them are different from what was originally told to the press yesterday. According to FoxNews.com, the student, Aliza Shvarts, now claims that she did attempt to impregnate herself but took herbs on the 28th day of her cycle to begin menstruating. She apparently did not take a pregnancy test at any point during these repeated attempts and does not know if she ever became pregnant.

Even though it is not known if she became pregnant, Ms. Shvarts "art" project should be shelved. And I think this student needs serious psychological help. Putting herself through these attempts at self-impregnation and then inducing menstruation (or abortion-- we don't know) is cause for concern.

As a woman who has suffered a miscarriage, I find it extremely offensive that this student thinks my grief-- and the grief of millions of women like me who have lost a child from miscarriage or induced abortion-- is subject to her bizarre and sick sense of "art."

And regardless of what she asserts, this project was obviously contrived to shock and incite controversy.

It is possible that these new claims are part of a new "narrative" for her "performance art" and if it is, again, a lie, I think Ms. Shvarts needs to have her project pulled and both she and her "project" advisor need to understand that performing or acting for an audience willing to suspend disbelief is different from deliberately setting out to deceive the audience.

Lying is not art. It's lying.

Yale has a responsibility here and I hope they recognize it.