Body Worlds (German title: Körperwelten) is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures. The exhibition's developer and promoter is German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who invented the plastination technique in the late 1970s at the University of Heidelberg.
History
Body Worlds was first presented in Tokyo in 1995. Body Worlds exhibitions have since been hosted by more than 50 museums and venues in North America, Europe and Asia.
Body Worlds 2 & The Brain â€" Our Three Pound Gem (concerning the brain and nervous system) opened in 2005 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. As of September 2010 it is showing at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver.
Body Worlds 3 & The Story of the Heart (concerning the cardiovascular system) opened on 25 February 2006, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. On 9 July 2009 this show appeared at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. As of May 2010, it is showing at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Colorado.
Body Worlds 4 debuted 22 February 2008 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in England and was in the Cureghem Cellars in Brussels until March 2009.
Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time (featuring human development and aging) debuted at The O2 in London in October 2008.
Body Worlds Vital was inaugurated at the Universum museum of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2012.
Körperwelten & Der Zyklus Des Lebens (The cycle of life) opened in Heidelberg in January 2009.
Body Worlds exhibitions have received more than 37 million visitors, making them the world's most popular touring attraction.
The exhibit states that its purpose and mission is the education of laymen about the human body, leading to better health awareness. All the human plastinates are from people who donated their bodies for plastination via a body donation program.
Each Body Worlds exhibition contains approximately 25 full-body plastinates with expanded or selective organs shown in positions that enhance the role of certain systems. More than 200 specimens of real human organs and organ systems are displayed in glass cases, some showing various medical conditions.
Some of the specimens, such as the Tai Chi Man, demonstrate interventions, and include prosthetics such as artificial hip joints or heart valves.
Also featured is a liver with cirrhosis and the lungs of a smoker and non-smoker are placed side by side. A prenatal display features fetuses and embryos, some with congenital disorders.
To produce specimens for Body Worlds, von Hagens employs 340 people at five laboratories in three countries, China, Germany and Kyrgyzstan. Each laboratory is categorized by specialty, with the China laboratory focusing on animal specimens. One of the most difficult specimens to create was the giraffe that appears in Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life. The specimen took three years to complete â€" ten times longer than it takes to prepare a human body. Ten people are required to move the giraffe, because its final weight (like all specimens after plastination) is equal to the original animal.
Several Body Worlds exhibits (as well as Von Hagens himself) were featured in the 2006 film Casino Royale. Among the plastinates featured were the Poker Playing Trio (which plays a key role in one scene) and Rearing Horse and Rider.
Regulatory framework
Czech Republic
In July 2008, the Czech Senate passed a law to address illegal trading in human tissue and ban "advertising of donation of human cells and tissues for money or similar advantages".
France
On Tuesday 21 April 2009, a French judge ruled concerning the Paris exhibition of "Our Body: The Universe Within", that exhibiting dead bodies for profit was a "violation of the respect owed to them". "Under the law, the proper place for corpses is in the cemetery", said Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard. Raingeard ordered the exhibition to close within 24 hours or face a fine of 20,000 euro (over 26,000 dollars) for each day it stayed open. The judge also ordered authorities to seize the 17 bodies on display and all of the organs on display from an unknown number of people for proper burial. Gunther Von Hagens issued a press statement denying any connection between the closed Chinese exhibition and his Body Worlds franchise. Similar exhibitions had already been successfully staged in Lyon and Marseille.
United Kingdom
England and Wales
The UK Parliament created specific legislation for plastination exhibits in England and Wales under the Human Tissue Act 2004. This requires a licence to be granted by the Human Tissue Authority. In March 2008, the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry was granted such a licence to hold Body Worlds 4 and a further licence was granted to the exhibition in the O2, London, in 2008.
The Human Tissue Act superseded the Anatomy Act 1832, which had been found by an independent commission (The Redfern Report) to be inadequate on contemporary collection and use of human tissues, following the Alder Hey organs scandal.
Scotland
The Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 â€" which amended the Anatomy Act 1984 â€" covers Scotland. Under the terms of this Act, licences for the handling of human remains, including display, must be granted directly by the Scottish Ministry.
"Subsection 9: If the Scottish Ministers think it desirable to do so in the interests of education, training or research, they may grant a license to a person to publicly display the body or, as the case may be, the part, and a person is authorized under this subsection to so display a body or a part of a body if, at the time of the display he is licensed under this subsection."
Various organizations gave evidence to the Scottish Executive during the consultation process, including the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Wellcome Trust, and the Museums Association.
United States
Various legislation has been proposed and enacted in different American states. Most proposals concentrate on issues regarding the sale of human remains and the consent of the donors.
National legislation on consent and tissue donation issues is expressed in the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (2006) passed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws which states that "an anatomical gift of a donor’s body or part may be made during the life of the donor for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education" and prohibits trafficking in donated human organs for profit.
In early 2008, former U.S. Republican Representative W. Todd Akin proposed an amendment to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 to "make it unlawful for a person to import plastinated human remains into the United States." The President of the American Association of Anatomists has expressed concern that the scope of the act is "too broad" and that "Preventing importation of all plastinated specimens could severely restrict their use for medical education.". The bill of amendment was not enacted during the 2007-2008 Congressional session.
California
California's proposed bill AB1519 (Ma), sponsored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, tried to "require exhibitors to get a county permit; to do so, they would have to prove to county health officials that the people whose cadavers were on display â€" or their next of kin â€" had consented".
Assembly Bill 1519 would have made California the first state to require such proof. It was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 26, 2008.
Florida
The state of Florida prohibits the sale or purchase of human remains and "Authorizes certain science centers located in this state to transport plastinated bodies into, within, or out of this state and exhibit such bodies for the purpose of public education without the consent of this state's anatomical board if the science center notifies the board of any such transportation or exhibition, as well as the location and duration of any exhibition, at least 30 days before such transportation or exhibition".
Hawaii
In January 2009, Rep. Marcus Oshiro introduced two bills prompted by presentation of the BODIES Exhibition in that state.
HB28 Relating to Dead Human Bodies would add to the prohibition against buying dead human bodies, the selling of dead human bodies and defines the term "dead human body" to include plastinated bodies and body parts. It would increase the fine for buying or selling a dead human body to up to $5,000.
HB29 Relating to Dead Human Bodies. Would prohibit the commercial display of dead human bodies without a permit from the Department of Health.
New York
In June 2008, New York State Senate passed legislation regulating body exhibits. A bill that was sponsored by Senator Jim Alesi requires anyone showing an exhibit that uses real human bodies in New York museums to produce a permit detailing their origin.
Pennsylvania
Representative Mike Fleck's proposed bill would require evidence of informed consent from the decedent or relatives of all humans whose remains are put on display.
Washington
The state of Washington considered a bill that would "require written authorization to display human remains for a commercial purpose".
Controversies
Body Worlds exhibitions have controversy and debate focused on various issues.
Religious objections
Religious groups, including representatives of the Catholic Church and some Jewish rabbis have objected to the display of human remains, stating that it is inconsistent with reverence towards the human body.
Sex plastinate
In 2003, while promoting a display in the Hamburg Museum of Erotica, Von Hagens announced his intention to create a sex plastinate. In May 2009 he unveiled a plastinate of a couple having sex, intended for a Berlin exhibition.
Lessening donor organ availability
In 2007 The Bishop of Manchester launched a campaign to coincide with the opening of Body Worlds in that city, accusing the exhibitors of being "body snatchers" and "robbing the NHS", arguing that donation of bodies for plastination would deprive the National Health Service of organs for transplant. The site included a government petition calling for "a review of the law regarding the policies and practices of touring shows involving corpses".
Consent
Consent is a primary focus of discussion. In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that von Hagens had acquired corpses of executed prisoners in China; von Hagens countered that he did not know the origin of the bodies, and returned seven disputed cadavers to China. In 2004, von Hagens obtained an injunction against Der Spiegel for making the claims. Paul Harris, director of North Carolina's State Board of Funeral Services, has stated, "Somebody at some level of government ought to be able to look at a death certificate, a statement from an embalmer, donation documents... That's a reasonable standard to apply." Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) said, "These displays do have important educational benefits, but using bodies against a person's will is unacceptable".
Questions raised regarding deceased hospital patients from Kyrgyzstan and executed prisoners from China â€" were categorically stated to have never been used in a Body Worlds exhibition, according to BodyWorlds. "Five years ago, customs officers intercepted 56 bodies and hundreds of brain samples sent from the Novosibirsk Medical Academy to von Hagens' lab in Heidelberg, Germany. The cadavers were traced to a Russian medical examiner who was convicted last year of illegally selling the bodies of homeless people, prisoners and indigent hospital patients. Von Hagens was not charged with any wrongdoing, and says his cadavers are obtained only through proper legal and ethical channels.
An Ethical Commission set up by the California Science Center in Los Angeles in 2004 had the following members: Reverend Richard Benson, Assistant Prof of Moral Theology and Academic Dean, St. John's Seminar, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles; David C. Blake, PhD, JD,VP, Mission and Ethics, Saint John's Health Center; Rabbi Morley Feinstein, Senior Rabbi, University Synagogue; Reverend Leonard Jackson, Associate Minister, First African Methodist Episcopal Church (First AME). They determined that "All the bodies need to be properly donated. Advisors felt that this is the most controversial aspect of the project. Proper body donation should be verified to the Science Center’s satisfaction, and involves several components. Several advisors reviewed the Body Donor and felt it should be reviewed to ensure that it meets an adequate standard of disclosure and informed consent. They recommended that the form should be clear to make sure the bodies in the exhibit consented to public display. The source of donated bodies should be verifiable; Ask an independent party to review donor forms, verifying that all bodies are donated properly.; Communicate to guests, near the entrance of the exhibit, that the bodies are donated."
As an ethical concern, consent is not regulated worldwide according to the same ethics. "That paperwork is then separated from the bodies, which can be used for displays or sold in pieces to medical schools. No one will know for sure, because each plastinated corpse is made anonymous to protect its privacy." Hans Martin Sass, a philosophy professor with a speciality in ethics, was hired by the California Science Center to investigate Body Worlds before the show's U.S. debut in 2004. He matched over 200 donation forms to death certificates, but he did not match the paperwork to specific bodies von Hagens has on display.
Gender portrayals
Body Worlds has been accused of perpetuating 'conservative' gender representations. This article notes that male plastinates were presented in 'heroic' 'manly' roles, including The Rearing Horse and Rider, The Muscleman and his Skeleton, The Fencer, The Runner, and The Chess Player, while female plastinates were shown in terms of beauty, passivity or reproduction, such as the Reclining Pregnant Woman, a plastinate whose womb is exposed to show her fetus in "a pose taken straight from pornographic cliche"; and The Swimmer, "suspended, midair, in the graceful position of a swimmer. This figure also had significant quantities of hair on its head". Other female plastinates are The Figure Skater, The Yoga Lady , the Kneeling Lady , and The Archer.
Import law concerns
International trade experts have objected to the way in which bodies for commercial display are imported, because the way their categorization codes (as "art collections") do not require Centers for Disease Control stamps or death certificates, both of which are required for medical cadavers. In most countries plastinated human specimens are classified under Customs Classification Code 97050000.48 "items in anatomical collections". This customs code encompasses "zoological, botanical, mineralogical or anatomical collections or items in such collections."
Ethical concerns about cadaver displays
In an ethical analysis, Thomas Hibbs, professor of ethics and culture at Baylor University, a private Baptist-affiliated institution, compared cadaver displays to pornography, in that they reduce the subject to "the manipulation of body parts stripped of any larger human significance."
In a 2006 lecture entitled "Plasti-Nation: How America was Won", Lucia Tanassi, professor of medical ethics and anthropology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explored questions for ethicists regarding this new scientific frontier. Tanassi called it provocative that ethics committees have contributed to the popularization of the exhibits without setting forth any process of a line of inquiry, pointing to an ethics report from the California Science Center. As part of that review, bioethicist Hans Martin Sass was sent to Heidelberg to match donor consents with death certificates.
Concerns have been expressed about the educational aspects, especially the inclusion of these displays for school field trips. St. Louis Diocese Archbishop Raymond Burke strongly suggested that Catholic Schools avoid scheduling field trips, stating that parents, and not children, should retain the freedom of deciding whether or not their children will view the exhibit. Concerned with how "some kids process" these "graphic" images, Des McKay, school superintendent in Abbotsford, British Columbia (near Greater Vancouver), barred field trips to exhibits of plasticized human beings. In an editorial to the Abbotsford News, Rev. Christoph Reiners questions what affect the exhibits will have on the values of children attending for school field trips. Othersâ€"such as the Catholic Schools Office of Phoenixâ€"acknowledge the educational content of Body Worlds. Reporting on the exhibition at the O2 bubble in 2008/2009, Melanie Reid of The Times stated "(Body Worlds) should be compulsory viewing for every child of 10 or over"
Press limitations
Von Hagens maintains copyright control over pictures of his exhibits. Visitors are not allowed to take pictures, and press photographers are required to sign agreements permitting only a single publication in a defined context, followed by a return of the copyright to Von Hagens. Because of a similar agreement applied to sound bites (O-Töne, in German) a German press organization suggested that the press refrain from reporting about the exhibition in Munich in 2003 .
Selling plastinates
The Body Worlds website offers plastinated pieces for sale. There are a wide range of products from plastinated fruit jewelry to entire humans. Although some of the pieces require purchasers to be a qualified userâ€"those intending to use the pieces for "research, educational, medical or therapeutic purposes"â€"many pieces, including animal testicles and baby chicks, require no authorization. There are also extremely realistic plastinate impressions of human hearts and slices (including one slice of copulating humans) for sale to the general public.
Competitors
The success of Body Worlds has given rise to several similar shows featuring plastinated cadavers, including BODIES... The Exhibition and Our Body: The Universe Within in the United States, Bodies Revealed in the United Kingdom, Body Exploration in the Republic of China, Mysteries of the Human Body in South Korea, Jintai Plastomic: Mysteries of the Human Body in Japan, Cuerpos Entrañables in Spain.
Some of these contain exhibits very similar to von Hagens' plastinates; Von Hagens has asserted copyright protection, and has sued Body Exploration and Bodies Revealed. The suits were based on a presumed copyright of certain positions of the bodies, but the counterparty asserts that the human body in its diversity cannot be copyrighted.
Such lawsuits have not stopped the competition. While the Korean police in Seoul confiscated a few exhibits from Bodies Revealed, the exhibition went on successfully.
Several of the competing exhibitions have been organized by the publicly traded US company Premier Exhibitions. They started their first Bodies Revealed exhibition in Blackpool, England which ran from August through October 2004. In 2005 and 2006 the company opened their Bodies Revealed and BODIES... The Exhibition exhibitions in Seoul, Tampa, Miami, New York City, and Seattle. Other exhibition sites in 2006 are Mexico City, Atlanta (GA), London, Great Britain and Las Vegas (Nevada).
Unlike Body Worlds, none of the competing exhibitions or their suppliers have a body donation programme. Dr. Roy Glover, a spokesperson for BODIES... The Exhibition said all their exhibits use unclaimed cadavers, deposited at the University of Dalian by Chinese authorities. In May 2008, a settlement with the attorney general of New York obliged Premier Exhibitions to offer refunds to visitors when it could not prove consent for the use of the bodies in its exhibitions. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo commented: "Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals. Nor is Premier able to establish that these people consented to their remains being used in this manner."
References
- Gottfried Bogusch, Renate Graf, Thomas Schnalke. Auf Leben und Tod Beiträge zur Diskussion um die Ausstellung "Körperwelten", Schriften aus dem Berliner Medizinhistorischen Museum, 2003, VII, 136 S. 62 Abb., Softcover ISBN 978-3-7985-1424-9.
- Lawrence Burns. Gunther Von Hagens' BODY WORLDS: Selling Beautiful Education, The American Journal of Bioethics 2007(4):12.
- Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca. Wachsfigur - Mensch - Plastinat. Über die Mitteilbarkeit von Sehen, Nennen und Wissen, Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte (1999), Heft 1.
- Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca und Thomas Kliche (Hg.). Verführerische Leichen â€" verbotener Verfall, "Körperwelten" als gesellschaftliches Schlüsselereignis, Lengerich u.a.: Pabst Verlag 2006
- Misia Sophia Doms. Die Ausstellung „Körperwelten" und der Umgang mit der endlichen Leiblichkeit, Volkskunde in Rheinland Pfalz 17/1 (2002). S. 62-108.
- Gunther von Hagens. Body Worlds - The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies. Amazon-UK.
- Gunther von Hagens, No Skeletons in the Closet â€" Facts, Background and Conclusions. Institute for Plastination, 17 November 2003.
- Franz Josef Wetz, Brigitte Tag (Ed.). Schöne Neue Körperwelten, Der Streit um die Ausstellung, Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 2001. Sixteen authors discuss the various ethical and aesthetical aspects of Body Worlds, in German.
- Angelina Whalley (Ed.). Pushing the Limits - Encounters with Gunther von Hagens, pp 45â€"36. 2005.
- Linda Schulte-Sasse. Advise and Consent: On the Americanization of Body Worlds, Biosocieties, Volume 1, Issue 04, pp 369â€"384, Cambridge University Press (now published by Palgrave Macmillan), December 2006.
External links and sources
- Official website (English and German)
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