I wrote, in May 2005, in "Among the cadavers." I'd just seen the "Body Worlds 2" exhibit at the Great Lakes Science Center, which is right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
I'm looking back at that post this morning because I see "Gunther von Hagens, Creator of Polarizing ‘Body Worlds’ Exhibits, Dies at 81/A German scientist, he developed a process for turning corpses into posable figures. His shows drew millions of visitors, and many detractors" (NYT gift link).
Excerpt from the obituary: "Many religious leaders objected... especially in Germany.... '"Body Worlds" is possibly the logical conclusion of Nazi crimes,' Andreas Nachama, a rabbi and civic leader in Berlin, told The Independent in 2001, 'when millions of bodies were burnt by their murderers into cinders or transformed into soap, and their skin into lampshades.' [Von Hagens] also faced accusations of accepting bodies of executed prisoners from China, though there was no evidence he knew the source...."
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The HypeMachine™ works Soylent Green.
Hope old Gunther enjoys his time in Hell.
I saw the exhibit and the one that got me was the body of a pregnant woman with a baby, cut open and exposed. Not for everyone but Medical students have gross anatomy lab where they cut people open and remove their organs. So I looked at it as a traditional educational experience, but for some it could be a damaging exposure to things a nice person should not really see.
For me, the exhibit is a way to encourage scientific interest in medicine.
If cadavers upset one, then one should eschew cadaver exhibits.
I saw one of these types of exhibits the last time I was in NYC, which was quite a while ago, more than 10 years. It included a horse. It didn't do much for me, I find Leonardo's sketches of anatomy and musculature more satisfying. The gruesomeness of the thing, it's off-putting, displacing curiosity for the most part.
In the '90s and early 2000s, cadavers were gleaned from sources in Russia and China. I think they have a different definition of volunteering in those countries. Anywho, when some reporters started digging around in 2004 and claimed some of the cadavers were executed prisoners, new methods for obtaining the bodies was instituted.
When Goonter was asked about the nefarious sourcing of the cadavers, he responded: "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!"
Will he become a plastinate himself? I'd heard that was among his wishes.
Back in 2009, we took our two kids to the San Diego Natural History Museum to see the Body Worlds exhibit. They were absolutely hooked, so we ended up going again in 2022 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Funny enough, our daughter is now a CRNA and our son is in his residency program.
Body Worlds was a big deal in the German media in those days back when you could read anything on the internet without paying for it. I wonder if he got the idea from the dead shark in formaldehyde that was a big deal in the British press a few years earlier.
If he was doing this without knowing the sourcing of the cadavers, he seems like a ghoul.
There was a similar but not quite as graphic exhibit at Chicago's Griffin Museum, in which microplaned cross sections of cadavers were preserved between glass panels to show the internal anatomy. It was both fascinating and creepy.
A technical term of art has Diverse precedents.
Sounds a bit like the Mutter Museum in Philly.
I found the overlays of human anatomy in the World Book interesting when I was a kid, but I'm too squeamish for actual bodies.
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