After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver

12. Public Display and the Dignity of Human Remains

276 Regardless of how bodies were obtained, I find the notion of both exhibits [Body Worlds and Bodies: The Exhibition] to be gruesome and disrespectful and voyeuristic. Linda M. Axtell-Thompson, Medical College of Wisconsin Ethics Listserv (July 2008) Chapter 12 Public Display and the Dignity of Human Remains Since Gunther von Hagens started the Body Worlds traveling exhibitions of plastinated corpses and body parts in 1995, over twenty-five million people worldwide have viewed these displays of the marvels of human body systems. (The plastination process for extracting liquids from cadavers and creating polymer-reinforced cadaveric tissue is described in chapter 6.) In the exhibitions, various plastinated figures highlight different aspects of body function. The circulatory system, respiratory functioning , neurological networks, the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, and the interconnections of muscles and ligaments are vividly reproduced —usually in contrasting colors and with clear labels and explanations .1 Though the figures are former human beings, their plastinated appearance makes them look more like fiberglass constructs. Each Body Worlds exhibition contains one or more action figures— plastinated human remains shaped and displayed in action poses. These action figures include a football runner, a basketball dribbler, a runner, a soccer player, a ballerina, an archer, and a chess player. They are lifelike in shape, though not in facial features, somewhat reminiscent of the statuary of George Segal, who specializes in lifelike poses of people standing in lines or in other street scenes. These action figures appear more like statues than instructive models. Several observers have suggested that Gunther von Hagens is basically a sculptor working in the medium of desiccated human flesh.2 That judgment seems harsh. There appears to be more than aesthetic value in von Hagens’s action plastinates. First, muscles and ligaments Public Display and the Dignity of Human Remains | 277 look different in action than when inert, perhaps casting a somewhat different light on the relevant body parts. Also, each action figure has a section cut away in order to expose and highlight some body parts. The plastinated runner’s leg musculature is partially peeled away from the bone, and the goalkeeper’s leaping figure has the spinal cord pulled away and exposed. A jumping dancer also has the back of the trunk exposed behind the rest of the figure. One member of a poker-playing trio has an open abdomen exposing the intestinal loops. In short, Body World’s artistic action figures have at least a patina of educational value. A rival operation, called Bodies: The Exhibition, has been running in New York City for several years in a format like Body Worlds’. At least ten other exhibitions, with titles like “Mysteries of the Human Body,” have appeared on the international scene.3 Body Worlds and its imitators are commercial enterprises. The entrance fees (usually about $25 per person) do not simply cover the costs of plastination, transportation, and display. Its millions of customers have made Body Worlds profitable and have inspired the copycat cadaver exhibitions. Despite the lucrative nature of their displays, von Hagens and other proprietors insist that the primary goal of the plastinated body exhibitions is educational.4 The exhibitions, they assert, promote better understanding of the complexity of the human body and its systems. The slogan of Body Worlds is “Discover the Mystery Hidden under Your Skin.”5 Critics of plastinated body exhibitions have been many and vocal. A major complaint is the suspect origins of at least some cadavers on display . Some of the figures have been those of executed Chinese prisoners whose cadavers were sold by the Chinese government without the consent of the decedent or the family. Another accusation is that Body Worlds is “a macabre spectacle” constituting a repugnant violation of human dignity.6 The thrust of this claim is that the public display is intrinsically “voyeuristic”—oblivious to the underlying humanity and individuality of the subjects and hence disrespectful of postmortem human dignity. The assertion is that exhibitions of plastinated cadavers are “merely feeding our inordinate taste for the macabre while masquerading as science education.”7 For these critics, the educational function of these exhibitions could be achieved by presenting artificial models without exploiting actual human remains. 278 | Public Display and the Dignity of Human Remains The contention that plastinated cadavers are superfluous educational tools is not convincing. Plastinates have an apparently unique capacity to show the minute details of human tissue. Hundreds of...