Controversial Bodies: Thoughts on the Public Display of Plastinated Corpses

Introduction: Plastination in Historical Perspective

1 Introduction Plastination in Historical Perspective john d. lantos, md Museum exhibitions of chemically transformed, meticulously dissected, and artistically displayed cadavers have become quite popular. Over the last decade, tens of millions of people throughout North America, Europe, and Asia have paid fifteen to twenty-five dollars each to see these exhibitions. The shows are so popular that many museums have had to extend their normal business hours to accommodate the vast crowds of people who yearn to see these unusual specimens. A story on National Public Radio discussed “America’s new love affair with corpses on display.” These shows have become the most successful exhibits in the history of science museums.1 Museums bring science and culture to people. Every day in the United States, 2.3 million people visit museums.2 There are nearly one billion visits to museums of one sort or another in the United States every year. Many more people visit museums than attend all professional sports events combined. Science museums shape the public perception of new scientific discoveries. So what are we learning from plastinated bodies? The exhibitions are a clever combination of magnificent technology , naughty sensationalism, and curious artistic aspirations. The technology is the simplest aspect to explain. The displays are made possible by a technique called “plastination.” This was invented by a German anatomist named Gunther von Hagens in the 1970s. The technique requires a four-step process that transforms living tissues 2 john d. lantos into moldable plastic. The first step is to embalm the body in a formaldehyde solution to halt decomposition.After any necessary dissections take place, the specimen is placed in a bath of acetone. Under freezing conditions, the acetone draws out all the water and replaces it inside the cells. In the third step, the specimen is placed in a bath of liquid polymer, such as silicone rubber, polyester, or epoxy resin. A vacuum is created, causing the acetone to boil. As the acetone vaporizes and leaves the cells, it draws the liquid polymer in behind it, leaving a cell filled with liquid plastic. The plastic must then be cured with gas, heat, or ultraviolet (UV) light to harden it. A specimen can be anything from a full human body to a small piece of an animal organ. Plastination was first used to create specimens for the teaching of anatomy in medical schools and veterinary schools. It is still used for this purpose. However, von Hagens also began to use plastination to create stunning anatomic displays that he exhibited to the public. The first show was in Japan in 1995. Von Hagens has become both the world’s most famous anatomist and an impresario of anatomy. In addition to his museum shows of plastinated corpses, he has conducted public dissections. In 2002, he rented a theater and performed a public dissection before a sell-out crowd of five hundred people. He has, reportedly, offered to sell plastinated body parts as decorations. Thousands of people have donated their bodies to von Hagens and consented to have their corpses plastinated and displayed. There is now a website for people who wish to donate, explaining how it can be done.3 In addition to being popular, the plastination exhibitions have been controversial. In 2003, officials in Munich tried to prohibit the exhibition there, arguing that it violated laws regulating burials and did not respect human dignity.4 Eventually, the exhibition was allowed to go on but only if some of the more controversial plastinates were removed. One might have predicted that the exhibitions would have been less controversial in postreligious Europe than in the more Godfearing United States.5 As Linda Schulte-Sasse explains in her essay, Introduction 3 the opposite was the case. While some cities in Europe banned the exhibitions, in the United States the more mild moral controversy seems to have been part of the marketing strategy, rather than a reflection of deep religious or ethical concerns. Many museums that host the exhibitions have created religious and ethics “advisory boards.” These boards universally approve of the exhibits or raise minor quibbles about particular pieces within the exhibit (the sensually posed pregnant woman with her uterus dissected and a fetus visible inside is always singled out as particularly troubling and as, perhaps, having crossed some line), which serve only to draw people ’s attention to the naughtiest or sexiest of the displays. These specimens are then...