Evelyn Barge
Assistant A&E Editor
Hundreds of people wait in line at the California Science Center seeking to satisfy an unusual curiosity with a new exhibit that is advertised to be as educational as it is shocking.
Inside the exhibition rooms of the massive, modern structure, the frozen eyes of 27 full-body human cadavers stare back at the visitors shuffling by slowly. Hundreds of human body parts and organs are neatly displayed in illuminated glass cases.
Welcome to “Body Worlds,” the exhibition of real human bodies created by German professor Gunther von Hagens. The traveling exhibit made its first stop in the United States at the California Science Center in downtown Los Angeles.
The exhibit, which is the Science Center’s largest undertaking ever, brought in record numbers of visitors in previous exhibition cities. More than 1.3 million visitors attended the exhibit in Berlin, and more than 2 million paid a visit to the cadavers in Seoul, Korea.
These cadavers have been welcoming curious visitors from all over the world since 1996. Their unnatural resilience is the result of von Hagens’ invention of a new preservation technique called plastination.Plastination prevents decomposition of the body and is virtually odorless.
According to the “Body Worlds” Web site, the plastination process infuses the bodies or organs with a reactive polymer, such as silicone rubber, epoxy resins or polyester.
Bodies that undergo plastination are completely dry and, according to the site, they “retain their natural surface relief and are identical with their state prior to preservation down to the microscopic level.”
Because decay has been prevented by plastination, patrons walking through the Science Center exhibit don’t have to contend with the overwhelming scent of formaldehyde, the chemical traditionally used in scientific preservation, or the putrefying smell of decomposition.
Priscilla MacRae, professor of sports medicine at Pepperdine, said she thinks the plastination process is a major scientific development.
“It has been around for a while, but the ‘Body Worlds’ exhibit was my first exposure to it,” MacRae said. “The fact that they can take out the water, skin and fat and replace it with this fluid plastic is amazing to me.”
Plastinated cadavers retain a life-like shape and color, allowing them to show all the intricate functions and structures of the human body.
Each of the bodies in the exhibit is cut apart and posed to demonstrate a specific anatomical system and how it relates to the rest of the body.
“The fact that the bodies are standing or they’re posing is intriguing,” said Dr. Donna Nofziger-Plank, assistant professor of biology. “This is what I would look like if I actually made that movement. This is what my muscles would look like and that’s what my spinal cord would look like.”
“Because of the preservation process, and this sounds gruesome, but if I peeled open my skin right now, it would look very much like that,” she said. “A cadaver that’s been preserved in a different way doesn’t appear lifelike anymore.”
The skin of one cadaver, nicknamed “The Basketball Player,” has been removed to show the dynamic muscles that lie beneath the surface.
The top portion of his skull has been detached and pushed back to reveal the brain. He lunges forward in the air and his mouth hangs open as if he were caught in a tense moment of physical exertion.
Another cadaver, nicknamed the “The Chess Player,” clearly demonstrates the workings of the nervous system.
Posed in front of a chessboard, this cadaver appears to be deep in thought as he ponders the next move. The spinal column is fully exposed in the back revealing the bundles of nerve fibers that it contains. The sciatic nerve is seen extending from the bottom of the spinal cord down into the knees of the cadaver.
“I am most interested in the nervous system, and it was fascinating to see the tiny bundles of nerves in such detail,” MacRae said.
Three standing cadavers have been reduced to only blood vessels, vividly portraying the circulatory system. According to the exhibit, the blood vessels were injected with dyed plastic. After the plastic hardened, all the surrounding tissue was removed by hand, chemicals, ultrasound and lots of water.
The results are the complete blood vessel systems of an adult man, woman and child. Because of the hardened plastic, the vessels hang suspended in the air as if they were still inside each body.
“It just shows you how important the circulatory system is to all parts of the body,” MacRae said. “As a teacher of human anatomy, [the exhibit] is by far the most spectacular display of human bodies that I’ve ever seen.”
Each body donor willed his or her body to von Hagens’ Institute für Plastination, which is based in Heidelberg. After death, a donor body has the chance of becoming one of the full-body plastinates, an individual organ display, or a body slice.
The body slices are thin, transparent pieces of the body that are cut across vertical or horizontal planes. The slices, when illuminated from behind, provide a clear cross-section of body organs and composition.
The body donors’ identities are withheld from visitors.
A sign at the entrance of the exhibit explains, “The identities, ages and causes of death of the individual body donors are not given with these exhibits, because the exhibit focuses on the nature of our physical being, not on providing personal information on private tragedies.”
According to the Institute für Plastination, donors have cited a number of reasons for bequeathing their dead bodies for plastination.
Many said they believe plastinated cadavers are an important source of knowledge on human anatomy. Some said they hope it will encourage people to take better care of their own bodies.
An anonymous male donor said, “I believe that plastination is very much suited to help laypersons to appreciate their bodies in a better way.”
Other donors said they feel plastination is a better alternative to being buried or cremated.
“The limited possibilities – to be either burned or rot in the earth – always seemed degrading to me and were problematic. After the soul, the body is the greatest thing I ‘own/owned’ as a human being, a miracle with the interplay of cells and organs,” one anonymous female donor said.
Although the body donors’ causes of death are not revealed, it is clear that many of the donors suffered from physical ailments and disease. Their diseased bodies and organs stand in stark contrast to the bodies and organs from healthier donors, imparting a tangible understanding of sickness and affliction.
The internal structures of human limbs that have been surgically altered are displayed alongside untouched limbs. Stainless steel screws, wires and plates embedded in these limbs demonstrate the benefit of medical intervention where natural healing or normal growth has not occurred.
Slices of brain tissue show the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the cerebral cortex. The degeneration is easily seen when compared to a normal brain. Cross-sectional views of brain hemorrhages reveal the impact of massive strokes on the human brain.
In one display case, a healthy lung sits to the left of a lung that has been blackened by years of cigarette smoking. The tar deposits spread over the entire surface of the respiratory organ.
“I think one of the main things the exhibit does is show you healthy bodies compared with diseased body parts,” MacRae said. “The most important lesson is that everyone needs to take control of their own health and body.”
According to the “Body Worlds” Web site another major goal of the exhibition is to offer visitors a view of the human body that has previously been withheld from them. The site states, “Until recently the privilege to view corpses and the human body’s interior has been confined to medical students and anatomists in dissection rooms.”
Although the examination of the “Body Worlds” cadavers is interactive and highly involving, the bodies remain distant tools of science and art.
Some of the cadavers have general names like “The Teacher” and “The Runner,” but they are referred to abstractly as plastinates and specimens. The immediate relationship between the dead bodies and the living people that view them goes almost undetected in the atmosphere of science.
Still, the relationship between the living and the dead is undeniable and has caused some visitors to raise questions about what is appropriate for scientific and artistic displays.
Ernst Lantermann, a professor at the University of Kassel in Germany, developed a poll to find out visitors’ reactions to “Body Worlds.” The poll was conducted in a number of European cities as well as Osaka, Japan. It found that 6 percent of visitors said the exhibit offended their views on human dignity.
The poll also found that 83 percent of “Body Worlds” visitors said they left with more knowledge about the human body and that 43 percent said it made them think more about life and death.
Pepperdine students who visited “Body Worlds” said they enjoyed it for its scientific and artistic merits, but some said they had reservations about portions of the exhibit.
“It’s a wonderful exhibit and it really makes you think more about the workings of the human body and all of the intricate details,” senior advertising major Christine Morrison said.
Morrison said that although the exhibit is highly informative and intriguing, she thought some portions of the display might be morally problematic. In particular, the prenatal development section of “Body Worlds” has drawn a considerable amount of attention.
In this section, a pregnant, female cadaver lies on her side. Her protruding stomach and uterus have been cut away to reveal a fetus in the eighth month of pregnancy.
“There’s always a fine line between what is artistic and what could be considered inhumane,” Morrison said. “The pregnant female body was questionable. I think that maybe the exhibit crossed the line at that point.”
Behind the pregnant cadaver are 11 preserved placentas, embryos and fetuses that represent the stages of development taking place within the womb. Embryos from the fourth week of pregnancy through the eight week show the rapid growth that takes place early on in life.
Nofziger-Plank, who specializes in developmental biology, said she understands why this section of the exhibit makes some people uncomfortable, “but all the more reason to understand it.”
“To see it in such a way, that’s very respectful and displays it for the wonder that it is, shows us how miraculous prenatal development is,” she said.
Senior international business major Bryceson Tenold said the prenatal development section was the highlight of the exhibit for him.
“Seeing the development of the fetus reinforced the sanctity of all life to me … The final exhibit showed an eight-month-old fetus in the womb, and that was nuts. The baby was huge and yet it still fit inside its mother. I think at that point I thanked God for my Y chromosome,” Tenold said.
While some contend that the display of real human bodies is immoral, many in the scientific community argue that “Body Worlds” offers significant, ethical contributions to society.
Nofziger-Plank said she thinks it is important to remember that the human bodies in the exhibit were all donated.
“Personally, for me, the exhibit would only be unethical if the people did not consent to it,” Nofziger-Plank said. “A lot of people cloak ethical issues behind whether it makes them say ‘ick’ or ‘yuck.’”
She said the exhibit drives home the fact that human beings are organic machines that will all die and that this makes some people uncomfortable.
“Our society has taken a very natural process, death, and completely removed ourselves from it to where death seems unnatural. It’s the most natural process that we have. It’s going to happen to every single one of us. The exhibit puts it in people’s faces that our bodies are machines and they’re going to die,” Nofziger-Plank said.
Despite controversies over the content of “Body Worlds,” more than 15 million visitors worldwide have viewed the dead bodies and organs that make up the exhibit.
MacRae and Nofziger-Plank both said they plan to take some of their classes on a field trip to view the exhibit in October. Dr. Jay Brewster, associate professor of biology, said the Natural Science Division is also planning an evening for several student clubs within the division to go see “Body Worlds.”
“There is a beauty that God has instilled in his creation,” Brewster said. “We should celebrate it. The bodies that we live in are a miracle of architecture, physics, chemistry and mathematics. I am encouraged that an artist is presenting the human form at this level of precision, and that this art is generating such a popular response.”
“Body Worlds” will be on display at the California Science Center through Jan. 23. The exhibit is not scheduled to return to the West Coast.
Submitted 09-30-2004
