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Gross Anatnomy?
by Sandra Thomas-staff writer
The skateboarder is perched upside down and balanced on one hand, his board light on his feet. His gluteal muscles, responsible for the upright position, have been sliced and flapped back to reveal the sciatic nerve passing beside the pelvis. Tendons have been cut and the kneecaps lifted. The skull has been opened and back muscles have been moved aside to reveal corresponding nerves. The skater is locked forever in this position, designed to show the inner workings of the body in motion. And he has no skin.
Welcome to Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 3: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, which opens Sept. 15, for only the second time in Canada, at Telus World of Science. The controversial exhibit features 200 human specimens, including the whole bodies of 22 dead people, who were skinned and preserved by the "plastination" method invented by von Hagens in 1977.
Body Worlds first showed in Japan in 1996 and has since been viewed by 20 million people worldwide. Global reviews are mixed. Some have called the exhibit "ghoulish," "shocking," "blasphemous" and even a "cadaver circus." But others regarded it as "educational," "fascinating" and "artistic."
Von Hagens, a German physician and anatomist, is not granting any media interviews until Sept. 14, the day before the exhibit opens here. But his wife Angelina Whalley, a physician and the show's designer, answered the Courier's questions via email from Houston,Texas.
"As a doctor, I want to teach people about their bodies and how to take care of their bodies," she writes in an email. "The exhibitions allow me to do just that. My work includes space and exhibit planning and installation, and presentation of specimens, organs, and plastinates for optimal aesthetic, thematic and [instructional] value. I find this work meaningful in more ways than I can count."
That same hope for meaning is expressed by the staff of Science World, which conducted a detailed ethical and community review once it received the green light to host the display. In three weeks, Vancouverites will get their own chance to decide if the exhibit is an unprecedented learning tool, as described by von Hagens and Whalley, or simply gross anatomy.
Whalley met von Hagens in 1986 while working in the science department at the University of Heidelberg. Originally studying for a career in surgery, Whalley signed up for a dissection class taught by von Hagens. Scientific endeavour led to romance and in 1992 the two were married.
Whalley began working for von Hagens in his lab and in 1995 became creative and conceptual designer of the Body Worlds exhibitions. In 1997, she was named director of the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, where von Hagens performs plastination on dead human bodies.
Plastination is an expensive and time-consuming method. The body's fluids are vacuumed out and replaced with reactive plastics, such as silicone rubber, epoxy or polyester resin, which harden when cured with gas, light or heat. But before the plastic in the specimens is hardened, the "plastinates" are fixed into lifelike poses, demonstrating how bodies respond to everyday movement and activities. Body cells and the natural surface area remain identical-even down to the microscopic level-to their condition prior to preservation. The specimens become dry and odourless and can be displayed without the use of glass barriers and formaldehyde.
Plastinating a whole body takes more than 1,500 hours and nearly a year to complete with many technicians, dissectionists, polymer chemists and other medical and scientific workers involved. A whole body plastinate costs between $45,000 and $60,000.
In his book Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, von Hagens offers several reasons why people donate their body to the Institute of Plastination, including "emotional rejection of decomposition and cremation," a desire to save on burial expenses or simply enthusiasm for the science of plastination.
Where the bodies used for the exhibit come from has been the subject of much speculation worldwide. An April 2006 press release from the institute says recent media reports wrongly claim Body Worlds includes the cadavers of executed Chinese prisoners in its exhibitions. After the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, reported the use of executed Chinese bodies in Body Worlds exhibits in Germany, an interim injunction was taken against the publication prohibiting it from repeating those claims. According to the release, the magazine was ordered to pay von Hagens a fine of 250,000 Euros.
The institute says despite an investigation clearing von Hagens, some media continue to repeat the allegations of the use of Chinese prisoners. But according to the institute, with the exception of a small number of dissected specimens and fetuses acquired from established morphological anatomy and pathology programs and historical anatomical collections, all of the specimens on display stem from a "unique" donation program started in Heidelberg in 1982. Later managed by the Institute for Plastination, established in 1993, the Body Donation Program is the primary source of bodies willed by donors for use in a Body Worlds exhibit. The institute claims a donor roster of 6,800 individuals, including 208 North Americans. It also has 350 cadavers, some already undergoing plastination, and von Hagens says it has no need to seek bodies from other sources.
Science World president Bryan Tisdall is familiar with the controversies surrounding the exhibit, but he is convinced the educational benefits of Body Worlds far outweigh any doubts.
"This is the largest exhibit in our history," says Tisdall. "It's unprecedented."
It's easily Science World's most controversial exhibit. The show's prenatal development display, which includes preserved fetuses at various stages of growth, has attracted much attention. Another point of controversy is the display of a woman, eight-months pregnant, slit down the middle to reveal an unborn baby curled up inside her. The pregnant woman, who was a registered donor at the time of her death, is not part of the exhibit coming to Vancouver.
Tisdall says when Science World received approval from the Institute for Plastination to host the exhibit in Vancouver, it was obvious from the start the community needed to be notified. Science World staff relied on a detailed ethical review of the show developed in 2004 before the display came to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the first time Body Worlds was seen in North America. That review has become a benchmark on which other science centres rely when considering hosting Body Worlds.
"In the review it recommends that each area develop its own consultation process through a local advisory committee," says Tisdall. "So that's what we did."
Science World also created a local community advisory group for guidelines on hosting the show. It included religious leaders, university professors, medical doctors and ethicists.
"We spoke with members of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities," says Tisdall. "We also let our [Science World] members know and notified our neighbours across the street. We also talked to staff and told them exactly what they could expect in case they had any concerns."
The American review found that overall the exhibit had "considerable educational value" and was appropriate for public viewing. The committee found the element that makes the exhibit compelling-real bodies-also makes it controversial.
The review advisors noted the most controversial aspect of the project was the need to confirm that all the bodies in the exhibit were properly donated and their source verifiable.
The review includes comments from religious leaders who said the exhibit was "not a breach of ethical and moral Judeo-Christian tenets." But they noted opposition to the exhibit could arise based on individual beliefs.
Science World curator Sandy Eix, who led the local advisory committee, says she heard the same opinions from local religious leaders.
"Each of the religious leaders basically said they were speaking as individuals and weren't keen on speaking for their entire congregation or community," says Eix. "They said the response is a personal thing and there will be some hard-line conservatives who just won't be interested, but there will also be others who will. It will be up individuals to decide if they want to attend or not."
Committee members of the local advisory group brought many different opinions and interests to the table. Anatomy professors from UBC wanted to ensure the scientific facts included were accurate.
Claudia Krebs, co-director of the gross anatomy department at UBC and a member of the committee, says she and department head Wayne Vogl were invited to participate because they help with an ongoing exhibit at Science World called Body Works, which explores the relationship between athletics and everyday activities. Except that exhibit involves people who are alive and have skin. "Besides teaching gross anatomy, I'm also in charge of the body donation program at UBC," says Krebs. "This has absolutely nothing to do with UBC, but I am familiar with how our body donation program works and was able to offer my experience."
Krebs says she and Vogl were given copies of the ethics review, information on the exhibit and student and educational material to read. They attended one meeting with Science World staff at the beginning of July and will meet with the entire advisory committee in the first week of September.
As a professional scientist, Krebs finds the exhibit "very interesting."
"I am not an ethicist so I don't have the knowledge to speak on the ethics of the exhibit," she says. "But as an anatomy teacher I am very familiar with the human body. I don't find it shocking at all and believe it will be good for the general public to see."
A visit to the exhibit won't be mandatory for her anatomy students, but she will recommend they see it. "I think they'll be very interested."
Eix notes while the B.C. Medical Association was interested in the educational value of the exhibit, it wants to encourage people to take care of their bodies.
Also on the committee were ethicists from Genome B.C., a government-funded research institute that studies the use of genes and has a background dealing with the scientific and moral ethics of genetics.
"They gave us an intellectual perspective on how to use human remains, as well as a certain amount of history on how things have been up to now," says Eix.
She says an ethical review was necessary for Science World because its members and visitors come from across the province.
"And because it deals with taboos and death," says Eix. "They bring out very strong opinions in people."
Whalley says controversy aside, for the most part the exhibitions "resonate with the public."
"People are curious and self-referential and open-minded, even when they come with trepidation," she says. "They often change their minds after seeing the exhibitions. The controversy surrounding the exhibitions is nearly always a media-generated discussion."
She adds even the dead fetuses and display of the pregnant woman are met with compassion and interest, not shock.
"People are deeply moved by the fetal development area of the exhibition," she writes. "They are encountering the continuum of pre-natal life for the first time, from the fourth week to the ninth month. They view this section with awe and reverence."
When Tisdall saw the exhibit in Toronto and Philadelphia, he witnessed the same response. "People were speaking in hushed tones and showing great respect," he says.
He started aggressively campaigning three years ago to bring Body Worlds to Vancouver.
"But the [Institute of Plastination] was of the opinion we did not have a large enough community or institution, at least not at that time. Until then Body Worlds had only been shown in larger centres," says Tisdall. "Then through a sequence of events and persistence on our part, it came together."
At the end of April, the institute contacted Science World to say it could host the show this fall. Science World jumped at the chance and immediately started preparations.
"They called us and said, 'If you can do it quickly, we'll be there.' We've only had four months to prepare and we really could have used a year," says Tisdall. "One of our largest obstacles is the size of the exhibit, which is 11,000 square feet. A typical exhibit at Science World is 5,000 [square feet] so we've had to reorganize some of our galleries."
In anticipation of the crowds of people seeing the exhibit, Science World has instituted online ticket purchase on its website. Additional phone operators are on standby to start selling tickets, which are on sale now, once a scheduled massive advertising and media campaign starts. Tisdall won't divulge the numbers, but the advertising campaign for Body Worlds costs eight times what the centre normally spends on advertising for exhibits.
"We're talking about billboards, print ads, outdoor posters in bus shelters, radio and TV," says Tisdall. "As well we're planning a campaign with the Chinese media."
Tickets purchased for the exhibit will be marked with a date and a time the purchaser can see the show in a bid to prevent long lineups. Science World is scheduled to be open three nights per week, besides its regular schedule, but Tisdall says staff is prepared to expand hours depending on the need. In several cities around the world, including Los Angeles, venues remained open 24 hours a day near the end of the exhibit to accommodate crowds. Last year almost 50,000 visitors took in the exhibit in Toronto, while 670,000 saw it in Denver, Colorado during the similar period of time it's scheduled for Vancouver.
Tisdall notes this is the first time Science World is hosting an exhibit not aimed at children and families.
"It does appeal to a wide audience, but is more targeted to adults," says Tisdall. "As for school visits we are recommending it for children Grade 5 and up."
Tisdall says part of the educational aspect of the display includes dissected organs, which are diseased, including a lung blackened from smoking. An obese body is compared to one of average weight. Other displays highlight the nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular and locomotive systems and reproductive organs.
"The owners of the show are really keen on educating people not only on how to understand their bodies, but how to treat them," says Tisdall. "One of the reasons we thought Body Worlds is so right for Vancouver is the healthy lifestyle people live here."
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Body Worlds 3: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies opens Sept. 15 and runs through Jan. 14, 2007. Admission fees for the exhibit will be higher than normal.
For more information go to www.scienceworld.bc.ca.
published on 08/25/2006
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