Is seeing really believing?
Could the sight of the spongy surface of a lung, blotched and gray from years of inhaling cigarettes, convince a smoker to give up the habit? Could a smooth, sliced-open arterial tube next to three others clogged by plaque residue urge people to say no to French fries?
Gunther von Hagens definitely thinks so.
The German anatomist -- creator of the traveling cadaver show known as "Body Worlds," now on exhibit at the California Science Center in Los Angeles -- has attracted his share of attention through the years. He's been questioned in Germany about the origin of the human bodies used in his exhibit. (He says they are documented, donated specimens.)
The British Assn. of Clinical Anatomists and the Anatomical Society of Great Britain balked at the lifelike poses his specimens strike. The organizations dismissed the exhibition as a spectacle, saying it might actually dissuade people from donating their bodies for medical research.
Perhaps most controversial was the televised autopsy that Von Hagens performed in London in 2002, in which the scientist ignored warnings from police, who said they would intervene. Von Hagens went ahead with the autopsy without incident.
Although much has been made of the more macabre aspects of Von Hagens' background, he insists that the primary purpose of his anatomy exhibit is to promote health consciousness.
His intent, he says, is "to show how fragile human nature is so that we understand that it is worthwhile to change [our] lifestyle, to live healthier."
The former doctor, nurse and ballroom dancer developed a method of preserving whole human bodies and organs by removing bodily fluids and fat. After a body is dehydrated, the fluids are replaced with reactive polymers, such as polyester or silicone rubber, that harden. It takes about a year to preserve an entire body. Dry and odorless, preserved bodies are exactly the same as they were before the process. Up close, tiny hairs and intricate vein mazes are entirely visible.
"I have to show the unexpected," says Von Hagens, who decided to include both diseased and healthy organs in his exhibit because he believes that most anatomy exhibits show only robust ones -- and thus don't deliver a powerful health message. The juxtaposition, he says, educates people about disease and pushes them to consider their own lifestyle choices."
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