Body beautiful

ILOS ANGELES – Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When people die, they either get buried or get cremated, right? Well, not all the time.

For instance, not exactly so for the 200 people who donated their cadavers for use in Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, which premiered here in the United States on July 2 at the California Science Center.

Through a process called "plastination" in which body fluids are dried out and replaced with special plastic, decay of dead bodies is prevented. The unique exhibit of human cadavers thrives on this preservation technique invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens in Heidelberg, Germany in 1977.

A man sits on a chair and is in deep thought in front of a chess board. But the "Chess Player’s" dead body isn’t the only thing exposed. More than the skin-deep thinking pose, the bare back shows the spinal column to illustrate how the nerve fibers run throughout the entire human body. One can even trace the peripheral nerves emerging from the spinal cord, all the way to the respective muscles that they control.

A pregnant woman lies on one side with her hand behind her head, imitating a swimsuit-model pose. But this particular model is naked. Not only stripped of any item of clothing; but also exposed sans skin, allowing for viewing of her heart, liver, stomach, intestines, and even her eight-month old fetus; to show how the growing fetus and placenta can shift the abdominal organs of a mother to upward direction.

A man’s lungs are uncovered. And from the black spots that fill the vital respiratory organ, displaying massive deposits of tar, one can conclude that he smoked while he was still alive.

These are only some of the "plastinates" in the exhibit that encourages people to discover the natural beauty of our anatomical body (Talk about beauty that is more than skin-deep.) It also aims to educate people of the uniqueness of each individual’s human body. When viewing the exhibit, one will notice that the position, size, shape, and structure of skeleton, muscles, nerves and organs vary from one human being to another. Our outward individuality starts from the inside.

Until recently, the opportunity to view corpses and the interiors of the human body has been exclusive to medical students and anatomists inside laboratories. With the invention of plastination and with this particular Body Worlds exhibit, common folks can now share in this privilege.

However, not everyone is excited. As much as the curiosity it has generated, the eight-year-old exhibit has also created controversy. The Associated Press has reported that "in Frankfurt, Germany, the Lutheran Church said that the display was amoral and insulting to the dead." There was also an instance at a London show where one visitor covered the body of the pregnant woman with a blanket "because he couldn’t stand seeing the fetus."

Not a few have referred to Von Hagens as "Dr. Death" or "Frankenstein" because of his work. For the religious, "The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, therefore it should be respected." What Von Hagens is doing by fighting decay is the same as going against nature.

In spite of some negative publicity, more than 15 million people throughout the world have viewed the showcase of corpses at several Body Worlds exhibit stopovers. The display that debuted in Japan in 1996 and made stops in Vienna, Cologne, Berlin, London, Korea, Singapore, Frankfurt and Taipei, among others, has now become the most successful exhibition of human anatomy of all time.

The specimens in the exhibit right now are from body donors, individuals who agreed during their lifetime that upon death, their remains may be used in the exhibition. Through the years, about 6,000 more people have signed up to donate their bodies to Von Hagen’s institute for possible plastination, mostly to contribute to the advancement of medical science.

As fascinating as finding out what goes on beneath our skin, the largest sensory organ in our body; as interesting as seeing the composition of our bodies – from the bones and skeletons, to the nerves, muscles, and the different organs; is the thought that grabs your attention after you look at each plastinate: This used to be a real living person. How did s/he die? How did s/he live?

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Postscript:

The exhibit will run until January 25, 2005. So if you’re planning your trip to California before then, try to squeeze this into your itinerary. Despite some Asian stops in the past, Body Worlds may never make its way to our strictly Catholic nation.

August is the eighth month of the year. For four weeks, let’s tour the "Eight Greats" here in Los Angeles, starting with the "Eight Great Museums" next week.