LOS ANGELES – Some people think it’s creepy. Some people think it’s cool. Most people think it’s a little of both.
But one thing is certain … it’s back.
“Body Worlds,” the popular exhibit featuring preserved human corpses, has returned to the California Science Center (through Sept. 7) in Exposition Park, bringing with it more than 200 authentic human specimens, including whole-body “plastinates,” filleted body parts and stand-alone organs.
“Body Worlds 3 & the Story of the Heart,” the third installment of the internationally touring exhibit, focuses on the heart and circulatory system. Visitors will see painstakingly preserved whole hearts … healthy hearts and those suffering from heart disease … as well as veins and arteries preserved and looking like red glass cobwebs shrouding the body.
“We shouldn’t fear how we look beneath our skin,” said anatomist and physician Gunther von Hagens, inventor of the plastination process and creator of “Body Worlds.”
Von Hagens invented the process of plastination in 1977 while working as a researcher at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. The process takes nearly a year and involves replacing bodily fluids and fats with plastics to prevent decay.
Originally, it was developed to help medical students learn about the human body; however, Von Hagens soon realized its potential as a public exhibition.
Bodies on display are almost sculpture-esque in their presentation, posed in many cases to look as if they are dancing, running or playing sports.
And while it may seem macabre, California Science Center president Jeffrey Rudolph said it is anything but.
“I think that is something people think before they see the exhibit,” Rudolph said, adding that he has his own “body donor card” so his body can someday be plasticized for public display. “When you see the exhibit, you very quickly begin to appreciate the beauty of the human body and the intricacy and how spectacular it really is.”
The authenticity is what makes the message all the more powerful, Rudolph added. Smokers seeing cigarette-stained lungs, for instance, may think twice about lighting up.
In fact, a California Science Center survey found that more than 30 percent of “Body World” visitors had subsequently adopted and maintained more healthful behaviors after seeing the exhibit.
“When you see a lung that’s been impacted by lung cancer and know it’s real, that means a lot more than seeing a model or a picture,” Rudolph said. “I’ve never seen another exhibit that so impacts people.”
But “Body Worlds” and exhibits like it … namely its rival show, “Bodies: The Exhibition” … haven’t avoided controversy.
The big question: Where did the bodies come from?
Von Hagens said all of the “Body Worlds” bodies are consenting donors. He said he has consent forms for all of his specimens as well as a back list of more than 8,000 people hoping to someday donate their bodies.
On the other hand, “Bodies: The Exhibition,” run by Premiere Exhibitions, reportedly doesn’t have consent forms and has been accused of getting its bodies through a black market that may have included executed Chinese prisoners.
Premiere Exhibitions CEO Arnie Geller denied knowledge of this and told ABC News in February that all of the bodies in his exhibit were people who died of natural causes.
“These are all legitimate, unclaimed bodies,” he told ABC.
But consent isn’t the only moral hurdle for the “bodies” shows. Some religious groups object to the public exhibition of corpses; others say the exhibits sensationalize the dead.
“I have no doubt that there are things to learn, but there are certain things I don’t need to learn from,” said Sarah Redpath, a North Carolina stay-at-home-mom who created the Web site www.nobodies4profit.com. “I could learn from gutting and stuffing an animal, but it’s not something I would want to do.
“I’m sorry, not everybody has the mentality of a medical student who is there to learn about the body,” she continued. “The only thing that’s keeping a freezer full of arms at a medical school being acceptable and a freezer full of arms inside Jeffrey Dahmer’s trailer not acceptable are ethics and standards and intent.”
There is no law overseeing the “bodies” exhibits. However, California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) has proposed a bill that would require exhibits to provide proof that plastinated bodies were donated with consent. The bill passed in the Assembly and is awaiting a vote in the state Senate.
“There are people out there who are willing to do this, and I applaud them for allowing their bodies to advance education and medical science,” Ma said. “I just have a problem if the people in the exhibit are not willing to be there. This could be someone’s relative.”
It’s an issue the Science Center hasn’t ignored.
Before allowing the first “Body Worlds” to open in 2004, the California Science Center asked its ethics committee to approve the exhibit … a process that included sending an adviser to Von Hagens’ offices in Germany to hand-match donor consent forms with death certificates.
The committee also was asked to determine whether the bodies were presented “respectfully and appropriately for educational purposes.”
Ethics committee member Morley Feinstein, a senior rabbi at University Synagogue in Brentwood, said approval was unanimous.
“There’s a passage (in Scripture) that says, ‘Whosoever saves a single life it is as though an entire world is saved,’ ” Feinstein said. “I went to ‘Body Worlds’ and heard children saying such things as, ‘Oh my gosh, if that’s what cigarettes do to a lung, I’m never smoking.’ … It’s extraordinary.”
Since debuting in 1995, “Body Worlds” has attracted more than 20 million visitors worldwide and grossed an estimated $200 million.
The exhibit was so popular at the California Science Center that in 2005 the museum stayed open 24 hours a day to accommodate sell-out crowds.
According to Rudolph, the Science Center is making plans to house a permanent “Body Worlds” exhibit.
