BERLIN, GERMANY.- German anatomist Gunther Von Hagens dealt with Chinese prisons for his “works” with plastinated cadavers which have earned him worldwide renown, and has even kept in his stockrooms the bodies of two people executed by the dictatorship, according to the German weekly “Der Spiegel” in its next week’s edition, an advance of which is published in the net. 

The publication maintains that the experiment that originated the exhibition “Worlds of the Body” was nurtured “for a long time” from trading with Chinese prisons, just as disclosed by an internal inventory of his business, Von Hagens Plastination Ltd., and states that in his Dalian (China) plant he had, as of November 2003, 647 corpses slated for selling to colleges or exhibitions. 

The inventory included the bodies of a boy and a girl, delivered to the Institute in December, 2001, who had been executed with a shot to the head. Predictably, the Dalian plastination institute is located near two penitentiaries, one of which houses political prisoners, and also near one of the so-called “re-education camps.”

The magazine maintains that many of the bodies had been bought and not donated, contrary to what the anatomist, who maintains that the bodies he uses to create his “compositions” have always been donated, has steadfastly declared.

In his statements to “Spiegel”, the “artist” admitted that his colleagues had accepted these deliveries that “horrified” him, and that the people implicated in this matter were fired. Von Hagens’ exhibitions have been a great success, with nearly 14 million visitors in Japan, Germany, Belgium and Southern Korea.

The skinned body of a rider that holds in one hand his head and in the other the head of his horse, is one of the “main courses” of the controversial “Worlds of the body” exhibition, that since yesterday shows the plastified remains of more than 200 actual bodies.

The exhibition, which so far has not been given official authorization to open to the public, is the work of German physician Gunther von Hagens, who has already taken it to Japan, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.

From the time it was announced two weeks ago, “Worlds of the Body” has generated debates in the United Kingdom between those who feel that the show has real didactic value and those whose opinion is that it is nothing but today´s version of Victorian monster fairs. 

Others have condemned the source of the corpses, donated by their owners, in some cases by people who viewed the exhibition and desired to be included in it when they died.

Von Hagens argues in his defense that in every city where he has taken his show “problems have come from people who have not viewed the exhibition, and have cropped up before the opening. When it opened, ordinary people have approved, and their coming to view it confirms that.”

The scientist, a graduate of Heidelberg University, has preserved the bodies by means of a technique he invented, “plastination,” that he has developed throughout the last 25 years also at the Medical Academy of Bishkek, in Kirguizistan, and the Medical School of Dalien, in China, where he works as honorary professor.

Through this technique, the professor extracts corporal fluids from bodies and substitutes them with a kind of plastic polymer that provides rigidity to organs, thus allowing him to arrange the corpses in everyday poses.

Thus, one can view the corpse of an eight-month pregnant woman in a position similar to that of Goya’s majas, with her abdomen open to display the fetus. 

Another “item” shows a chess player concentrated on the game while his sciatic nerve is exposed to public view, while nearby a skeleton seems to dance the “conga” with its own muscles.

Other display cases exhibit samples of organs, either healthy or diseased, to propitiate, according to Von Hagen, “a musing about life, death, health and our own vulnerability.”

Hagens insists that the purpose of the show, which after six months in London will be taken to the United States and Canada, is to “edu-entertain”, that is, educate and divert.

So far, none of the donor’s families have complained about the way the bodies have been arranged in the exhibition, which, according to its organizers, has been seen by a total of more than eight million people in various localities.

“The Alderhey Scandal” - The exhibit has received its first complaints in the United Kingdom, among them those of parents distressed by the “Alderhey scandal,” the hospital in Liverpool where doctors extracted organs from children’s corpses without the knowledge of the parents.

The British Health Ministry has determined that British law –that prohibits the display of dissected corpses without special permit- does not include this show because of the special technique applied by the German scientist. 

According to a spokesman, “the law of Anatomy was not written for cases such as “Worlds of the body.” The legal position regarding this exhibition is not determinant and, given the circumstances, the show may take place without the need of a special permit.” 

Von Hagens is confident that the show will go on with no incidents and will secure new donors among the British public. According to him, “plastination is an alternative to burial or cremation, both of which many people find disagreeable.”

Once all is said and done, says the professor, being preserved in this fashion “offers a sort of possibility of immortality, a sort of secular burial that will help enlighten future generations.”