The Amazing (freak show) human body exhibition : Melbourne Indymedia

Have these thoughts ever crossed your mind?
“I’d like to slice a gaping hole in my arm just to look at what’s inside and I would like to see what I would look like if I was skinned alive.”

If the idea appeals to you but you would rather see the insides of someone else, coming to town soon is a exhibition that will excite you.

Billed as ‘The Amazing Human body’ a touring freak show from China that has already been seen in Sydney and in South Australia with out the slightest negative media., it will, I promise you , turn stomachs and raise more than just a few eyebrows.

Shows like it have been touring the world for many years with names like Body Works, bodies or The inside Story each have much the same promotion. The advertisement has a happy smiling skinless stiff on the cover with words to the effect that the show is educational.

The voyeurs attracted by the advertisements selling ‘The Amazing human body’ will be after guts gore and entrails and will not be disappointed.

On display are 18 intact and perfectly preserved human remains, which are quite approachable, they are not encased in glass or behind barriers or guarded by over zealous security guards. Assorted plasticised body parts in plastic cases are also on table displays while human bodies in various states are in the centre of the room, all in an art gallery like setting.

The show is easy to navigate as the ticket price comes with a portable audio guide, which explains to the individual each sculpture in gory detail as you pass by the scenes.

There’s, a bicycle, a chess set, a bow and arrows and a tennis racket, used as props to make the attractions look more pleasing. As I said, it is a freak show, with each body in a macabre masquerade, posed to make them seem just a bit more life like.

There are mutilated human remains playing tennis, ridding a bike and posed in allsorts of amusing positions with swinging genitals and toothy grins to give punters value for dollars.

All 18 bodies on display were living and breathing only two years ago.

The process of plastication takes months once the victim stops wriggling, factory workers replace bodily fluids with polymers useing pumps and vacuums before catalysing the resin with hardener as the body transforms into its plasticized form. Colours and glass eyes are added to give the impression of personality and the exhibit is posed and ready for the show.

The process sometimes traps fatty residues inside the exhibit that later leak. So you are advised not to stand too close while viewing the stiff as it may harm your health to do so. ( that is, if your not sick enough to begin with)

The exhibition is more than just a freak show, as some find pornography educational. This industry however exploits the system that has allowed medical science to obtain human specimens for research.

The buying and selling of donated corpses and body parts, from private donations or medical collections, is legal in many countries. However, leading medical bodies in Britain said Von Hagen’s activities raised ethical questions. 'We feel uncomfortable with the money aspect of it,' said a representative for the British Medical Association.

In Britain, it is hard to obtain even a real bone skeleton today and many medical institutes make do with plastic replicas. Dr Graham Peddie makes it clear that people are no longer donating their bodies to science “these days” he says, they donate body parts, a cornea here or a Kidneys if your lucky, people die waiting for transplants as few seem willing to leave the whole body to science anymore. I’m surprised that Von Hagan has no problem with his supplys”

A representative for the Nuffield Foundation said: 'Human tissue should not be bought and sold in international trades between wholesalers. traditionally whole bodies are exchanged for a nominal cost as they become available.. Body parts, anatomical specimens or preserved bodies should not be displayed in connection with public entertainment amusement or art.'

Despite the macabre nature of the attraction, millions have flocked to see Von Hagen’s exhibition. In Japan, where it was on display from 1996 to 1998, it attracted more than 2.5 million visitors. In Berlin last year, 1.4 million people saw it in seven months.

Overseas the exhibition has attracted demonstration from women’s groups who streaked through exhibition centres in protest, outraged that the exhibit had examples of men only. After which a female specimen was hastily acquired and the exhibition now boasts one woman amongst 18 men to appease the equality hardliners.

The exhibition encountered the wrath of the Falun Gong.. Its members allege that the Chinese government is responsible for the ‘disappearance’ of anywhere between 500 000 and 2 million of Falun Gong followers and wanted assurances that the bodies displayed in world wide exhibits were not dead Falun Gong members.

Unfortunately no records matrialized identifying the corpses used in the exhibition or can identify corpses sold by the Chinese government so no assurances could be verified, nevertheless the organiser assured all concerned that the bodies used were unclaimed or donated and were not executed prisoners.

In China it is not illegal to use the bodies of political or criminal prisoners for commercial purposes. This is how a government backed trade has developed into an body parts industry, which might now included Hagan’s Horror show.

In the transplant, industry body parts are exported and in allied medical services westerners are enticed with guarantees of available hearts kidneys and lungs and travel to china where transplants are received in Chinese hospitals. Amnesty International estimates that China now executs at least 3,400 people annualy.

In an effort to improve cost-efficiency, Chinese provincial authorities are beginning to introduce so-called mobile execution vans. These are intended to replace the traditional method of execution by firing squad in which prisoners are taken to an execution ground and made to kneel with hands cuffed before being shot in the head.

Officials in Yunnan province explained that only four people are required to carry out the execution in the mobile vans: the executioner, one member of the court, one official from the procuratorate and one forensic doctor.

Eighteen mobile executions vans, converted 24-seater buses, are being distributed to all intermediate courts and one high court in Yunnan province. The windowless execution chamber at the back contains a metal bed on which the prisoner is strapped down.

In this way a prisoner sentence to death can be executed in transit between court hearing and trasplant hospitals ensuring that the corpse is fresh, a surplus could be delivered to one of of Dr Gunther Von Hagan’s two Plastination factory’s in the coastal city of Dalian .

‘Body works’, ‘Body World’ and ‘The Amazing human body’ Exhibitions now touring in Australia are trading names owned or associated with Dr. Gunther von Hagen’. An East German whose chequered career has included long terms spent behind bars himself.

The company uses many names throughout the world and issues licences to so called copycat operators but all exhibits are created in Von Hagan’s Chinese factories and are exhibited under licences offered only through him.

Hagan now living in China is the inventor of the plastication process Registered trademark all rights reserved and holds copyright, he retains sole control over the process. He has always vigorously denied using executed prisoners for his touring freak shows and has insisted that each one has been donated.

In 2004 he was accused of using the bodies of political prisoners in a similar exhibition, ‘Body Worlds’ - charges which were later denied. Body worlds did, however, return bodies from their exhibition to China after the 7 were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads.

The fact that his body shop factories are now located in the Chinese coastal city of Dalian tells a different story to the one Hagan likes to spin. Usually manufacturers like to situate their factories near to a source of raw materials and it seems Hagan’s industry is no different.

Thousands of processed human bodies have already been treated in Hagan’s body shops since his business developed the concept of human exhibits and now hundreds of finished works in many exhibitions tour the world.

'The bodies in all exhibitions are disproportionately young males. In China, the most likely source for large numbers of young male bodies would be prisons or labour camps. The unproven allegation that the bodies are executed prisoners is made stronger when the single child policy is taken into account.

In force for many years, the one child policy puts the bereaved parents in the picture as the potential suppliers of Hagan’s industry. if Hagan is to be believed and we are to accept that the bodies are not executed prisoners then parents of the dead must have been involved in the contractual agreements.

This arrangement suggest that the bereaved parents of an only child would willingly say goodbye to their son as he is skinned and filled with plastic and sent on a world tour to make Hagan some money.

In other interviews, Hagan’s representatives have said that the bodies are all the unclaimed corpses of the destitute or from insane asylums in china, but if true this would mean the source has limitless supplies competing with the Chinese prison system.

While touring America last year Hagan had to defend allegations that he was acting like the Nazis, who in their day tried several ways to make money out of Human remains. Hagan fell back on previous assertions that people were cueing up to become part of the educational show saying that thousands of American had already signed contracts to donate their bodies for future exhibitions, and indicated that he did not need executed Chinese prisoners because he was already inundated with a surplus .

However no verification of the claims were ever given. Hagan also makes the claim that his freak shows feature Europeans although the exhibits in the Australian show are obviously from Chinese extraction.

Hagan’s specimens now numbering in their thousands have been sourced from many nations over the years. Russian prisons and many eastern European countries supplied Hagan with bodies but more recently he relies only only on China.

To date Hagan is under investigation in several nations who would like proof that the bodies he uses are legitimately and ethically acquired. The Chinese culture is not known for disrespecting the dead although there is a known market that exist for organs and body parts obtained from executed prisoners however as a crime against humanity the body part scandal does not compare with the freak show that is currently entertaining Australians.

I would like to think that the Australian government would have a duty of care in this matter and inquiries follow to ascertain how Dr Hagan secures bodies for his plasticised freak show. The public deserves to be assured that the claims made by the show are correct and should be protected from unknowingly aiding and abetting crime.

China has a well-documented history of human right abuse, which was once widely reported before any mention of China’s recent past put at risk various recent trade agreements shared between our nations.

As the Chinese government supports this export and hosts Hagan’s human display industry, our government should seek assurance and speak directly with the Chinese government to address the concern.

Surely, there is some decency left in our society that would put an end to what the Nazis would call the greatest show on earth?. If the perpetrators were German and the exploited victims were Jewish I’m sure there would be an outcry. Should Von Hagan be allowed to profit from the exploitation of executed Chinese prisoners?

I would hope not. Will the australian government demand an inquiry?

So far no investigation has been able to find out if Hagan’s bodies are Falun Gong members or relatives of your local Chinese community but I think its time someone found out.

Thankyou for your time

http://www.healthcentral.com/drdean/408/20773.html.

http://www.koerperwelten.de/en/pages/koerperspende.asp

According to this website there have been 6000 living people who have opted to donate their bodies for this macabbre exercise(and 300 dead ones). There is something that makes one doubt these figures.... Interesting too that von Hagens set up shop in China; it is mentioned in the brochure that he needs the specimens fresh. I am sure the subjects of this bizarre practice had no idea what fate lay ahead for them.
http://www.koerperwelten.de/Downloads/BD_Brochure-E.pdf

Any nation cruel like China who take beating hearts from anyone don't deserve any show without proof of the identity of those they seek to display.

Beating, beating, beating beating,

=========================

A timely look at china's human rights!
by Incomprehensible

UK transplant patients go to China for organs

by Sarah Boseley

The British Transplantation Society said that "an accumulating body of evidence suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their family".

Thousands of organs are thought to be involved in the lucrative trade, it said. Transplant centres, patients, and the Chinese authorities and judiciary could all be implicated in a breach of human rights.

"The British Transplantation Society condemns unreservedly any activity that transgresses an individual's human rights or involves the coercion of an individual to become an organ donor," said Stephen Wigmore, chairman of its ethics committee. "The alleged use of organs from executed prisoners without consent is considered a breach of human rights and is an unacceptable practice. A reported close relationship between transplant units and the authorities regulating executions and
the availability of organs is unethical."

http://indymedia.us/en/2006/04/15832.shtml

Tracking Down the Mysterious Organ Sources of China's Shenyang City's Multi-Organ Transplant Center

At present, we know the following cruel facts: most organs for transplants in China come from prisoners, and a large number of them have been removed from prisoners when their hearts were still beating. Organs taken this way may be called "live organs." Referring back to our previous question: In Shenyang City, especially Shenyang Multi-Organ Transplant Center, are there organs belonging to this kind of "live organs"? Take kidney transplant as an example. In China, patients usually have to wait for six months to a year for a kidney transplant, but in CITNAC of the Multi-Organ Transplant Center, patients only have to wait for a week to a month for kidney transplant, and the kidneys are not any inferior than those live ones sold by the poor people.

http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/10984

I'm amazed that you can sit there and whinge about this enlightening scientific exhibition but do nothing about out part in blowing Iraqis to pieces.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Iraq+victims&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

In fact, I don't want to hear another word from any whinging cunt on the planet while the obscenity that is the Iraq war continues.

Get off your fat, lazy, stupid arses and stop this fucking war NOW you useless CUNTS.

Go son of sam. I'm with you.

I'm going to start killing soon
by Son of Sam Thursday May 11, 2006 at 09:09 PM

I'm amazed that you can sit there and whinge about this enlightening scientific exhibition but do nothing about our part in blowing Iraqis to pieces.
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The war in Iraq is a focus of education in politics, armed warfare and religious expression, it takes in economics environmental sciences health and human rights. It would be hard for anyone to ignore its impact, which has enlightened many to the real purpose of US policy. The war is an actual exhibition on tour and recorded for our pleasure on televisions and is currently showing in Two theatres.

Sam I suggest you bite a few more pieces than you are currently chewing, Iraq is a boring meal to eat alone and we will have to endure years of the subject. So take it easy, start yelling ‘Troops out by 2020’ and people will take you seriously.

Right now, we can ask that freak shows like Amazing, are banned.

add your comments

As we embrace the political right increasingly tenaciously, the relentless attrition has, it seems, stupefied us to the point where Nazism has become tolerable even for such insignificancies as the attainment of a cheap thrill.

People are duped into believing and trained to become what ever suits those in control, until the regimen is changed by those not too convinced which leaves another legacy of dissent to ferment.

It’s a cyclical Phenomena, if we were educated to believe Jews were subhuman the majority would treat them as colonialists have treated indigenous races around the world. Palestinians now live in ghetto's one-step away from the obvious last resort or final solution.

If our society is not shaped by its people then its people are shaped by a self-serving force. copyright.

If the force says iots ok and legal, then who are we to complain?

The best chance we have is to point out that the Howards government is opposed to the death penalty, but supports a traveling exhibit of executed prisoners.

Free the bodies now! free david hicks, free the refugees, free...dom furniture should be given away.

Its all crap really because society will replace one mess with one of equal quality.

Until you've stepped into the blood and guts of the abattoir you dont know what it means to be human.

Until you've stepped in the the blood and guts of humans that have been blown to peices you don't know what it is like to experience non-humans.

This whole issue brings up many questions about the sacredness (or insignifance) of dead bodies. Is a dead body something to be treated with respect and does that respect change in accordance with the history behind the corpse? Do we not as humans have a fundamental resposibility to treat others dead or alive as we would like to be treated ourselves?
Is an executed Chinese prisoner somehow less human than your child, mother or brother?

Is an executed Chinese prisoner somehow less human than your child, mother or brother?

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Not less human, we would not execute animals or people to put them on display. Westerners are worth far more than people from other nations and animals belong in Zoo's.

3000 Indians died in Bhopal years ago and the toxins left by Union Carbide have killed thousands more.
3000 Americans died in 911 and we have not heard the last of the repercussions.

*3.2 million Iraqis have died in the 1991-2006 Gulf war but we hear only figures quoted from 2003-2006 and 'Body count' is a lie.

During research for the article, I canvassed for opinion and the reaction from some was disturbing. They said that china has more people than they knew what to do with and had nowhere to send them. The idea was that under the same conditions Europe sent the surplus population to America and Britain sent them here after executions became too unpopular.

The world has changed since the days of our industrial revolution but China must remove from society their surplus population and has targeted those that might cause civil unrest.

From research interviews the quote that sticks in my mind the most came from a 60-year-old man who said, "There are other things to be indignant about, the Chinese do not hurt us and criticising them may do greater harm to our country"
He also said that raising awareness about this issue might encourage more people to view the exhibits.

He did hesitate when I asked if Nazi’s touring a Jewish exhibition would be ok? and someone said the holocaust museum has skulls and pictures on exhibit as if it was the same thing

I am inclined to agree with the Idea that Australians will not care, the exhibit argues that the bodies are donated, I cannot prove otherwise. The Chinese government refuse to comment and investigations have hit a brick wall. While people can think the authorities can be trusted they will accept any old story.

Well they accepted WMD and regime change, like it was gospel, old growth forest would not get wood chipped and cigarettes were not harmful, the list is endless but people will believe what they are told.

While I hold out hope that as anti cigarette advertisements cannot encourage people to take up smoking this article also cannot make the show more acceptable.

*figure calculated from the UN figures reported as being 2.2 million dead as a direct result of war and sanctions during cease fire between 1991 and 2000. The additional million is based upon the death rates current during occupation and civil war and caused by sanctions from 2000 to 2006.

While I hold out hope that as anti cigarette advertisements cannot encourage people to take up smoking this article also cannot make the show more acceptable
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The problem is that most people will not see the article unless a mainstream newspaper or A Current Affair picks it up.

There may be little hope of this as the public reaction the press would anticipate would be similar to that reflected in the words of the 60 year old you mentioned.

and two miners stuck down a hole, I cannot wait for the interview, eddi macGiyver.is doing it himself, can you imagine what the miners experienced down there for a week. It will be a moment to remember in C.A history.

Meanwhile forgotten long chinese miners thought to have died in mining desasters have developed a community below ground in northern china. Explosions and cave ins have taken a great toll of workers, but authorities assurances claim that the miners have established settlements and are cultivating mushroom farms living on rats and are quite content in their new surrounds. There are no plans to rescue them, authorities say that messages tapped through to the surface have pleaded on behalf of the miners to allow them to remain underground. The Chinese government intends to initiate feasibility studies in subterranean colonialisation. Studies reveal that the countries space per person can be increased if old mines and caves are inhabited in the future.

Oh come on! its a joke!

Just because everything else I write is completly factual.

Did you also know

the most common name in china is Bob and the least popular is Englebert.

and
13% of all days in china occur on a monday.

Most people in China prefer to write on white paper.

More shoes in china are worn than in any country in the world.

More rainforests are destroyed so that pig farmers can supply meat and Ikea can produce crappy furniture.

More chinese graduates will become pig farmers next year.

More Ikea stores will open their doors to more people than use a western style toilet.

Millions of years ago, dragonflies had a wing span that was about the same size as a mallard duck's is today.

The African egg-eating snake uses a saw-like bone in its throat to break open the shells of the eggs it eats.

There are more than 12,000 different varieties of ants in the world.

The roundworm lives for only 12 days; the lake sturgeon (a fish) can live more than 150 years.

Crickets have hearing organs in their knees.

An ant can lift 50 times its own weight-with its mouth.

The common snail has close to 10,000 teeth--all on its tongue.

A frog must close its eyes in order to swallow.

Texas horned toads can squirt blood from the corners of their eyes.

The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head without moving any part of its body.

Scientists have determined that the common housefly hums in the musical key of F.

To make one pound of honey, bees must collect nectar from approximately 2 million flowers.

Most mammals live for about 1 1/2 billion heartbeats.

A mosquito has 47 teeth.

A kangaroo cannot jump if its tail is lifted off the ground. It needs its tail for pushing off.

An earthworm doesn't breathe through a mouth or nose like you; he breathes through his skin.

Australian tree frogs give off a chemical that helps heal sores when it's put on human skin. Doctors expect to find lots of other ways the chemical can be used.

Fish have no eyelids. They can't blink, wink, or close their eyes to sleep.

Blink your eyes. That's how long it takes a scorpion to stab its stinger into prey and squirt its poison. Sometimes when a scorpion is threatened, it sprays poison several feet into the air.

Sea spiders bodies have very little room inside them, so their intestines are in their legs.

A hummingbird may get nectar from 2000 flowers in one day.

The smallest tree in the world is the dwarf willow. In some places, it grows only two inches (5 cm) tall.

Each big eye on a dragonfly is made up of many little eyes--up to 28,000 of them! Dragonflies can spy moving objects up to 40 feet (12 m) away.

One kind of termite queen can lay more than 86,000 eggs every day!

The deadliest animal in the world is the mosquito. Mosquitoes carry diseases such as malaria that may kill more than a million people each year.

Honeybees make a total of 10 million trips between their hive and flowers for each pound (450 g of honey they make.)

Some bats can eat 500 mosquitoes every hour.

An elephant may use a leafy branch or plant stalk as a fly swatter.

The world's smallest mammal is probably the bumblebee bat of Thailand. The little creature is about the size of a large bumblebee, and it weighs less than a penny.

Cockroaches can go without eating for three months, as long as they have water. And they can eat many different foods, including your peanut butter sandwich, your fingernail clippings, and especially your math book (they like the glue in the binding).

The longest insects in the world are stick insects from Asia. They can grow to be over a foot (30 cm) long.

no sense of shame in the unaccountable collective.
no sense of shame whatsoever

just more fecal matter ad nauseum for the goyim - more everyday , keep them steeped in a rain of shit and piss and sequens, and no matter how much they might complain, just soldier on like they do in Palestine with bulldozers and bullets and fecal matter and bags of urine for the children - because that's what a good soldier does - a life steeped in blood and fecal matter and urine.

no sense of shame whatsoever

No one disputed the article.

No one can dispute that *genocide occurs in Israel
And no one disputes the fact that western nations encourage and support it

* Look up UN definition of genocide.

No one disputes that Chinese workers are exploited and work in sweatshops.

If they complain the end up in Jail.

But no one here complains, and no one stays away from K-Mart Bunnings or Ikea.

Bottomline, Australians do not give a shit as long as we get cheap shit.

If the Union movement was strong it would have halted cheap imports from china, protected industry here and worked to improve conditions for all workers.

But they are weak

And now Australians can cue up to see the remains of executed chinese prisoners displayed in funny positions.

Its the equivalent of a scene from The Planet of the Apes.

Except we are the apes and the exhibits are Chinese.

Oh its so wonderful to be Australian.

Maybe the next 'Amazing' tour should feature American or Australian soldiers killed in action fighting civillians.

But that's a discraceful suggestion.

I have always had the strangest of sensations looking at animals in the zoo. They look at me and I look at them and there is that question as to who the most curious specimen. Now we have a situation where we go to another form of zoo and see a reflection of ourselves, stripped on all the niceties: no locks of soft hair, smells of perfume, healthy moisturised skin, comfortable jeans etc. Instead we see ourselves in the vacant, staring eyes of an unknown male, on show for all to see, with the only trademark of identity being oriental eyes.
We possess the same bodies as these godforesaken men and yet where are their souls? What is left but a ghost of the past, a spent cartridge, an eggshell or a used condom? Where is the godly side to them? Is theremore to humankind and to us than this?

Contact with Sydney people has been difficult, as SIMC seems to be on the blink. However, I did speak to one, and although I cannot find a link, he assures me that several female exhibits were withdrawn from the Powerhouse display because they were being molested.
I thought that kind of thing only happens to unbarrelled bodies in Adelaide, and I thought that Sydney was full of queers, any way.
Australians are sick.

Sow this article or repeat these facts and people will no see the freak show.

Hard copy the article and had it out, people will think, they just need the alternative media.

bigfatblog http://www.bigfatblog.com

While shaming people into losing weight is nothing new, there's a new exhibit out at the California Science Center that does it in a new way. The Body Worlds exhibit essentially takes cadavers and slices them very thin for display. Normally the cadavers are simply displayed, and causes of death are not stated.

Ah, but for the fat cadaver, we do get a cause of death (fat) along with the shaming. In this LA Times article, the fat part of the exhibit is even given a snappy name: "Suicide by Fat."

Anatomist Gunther von Hagens says that the whole point of showing fat (which the article's author describes as draping off the cadaver's body "like spilled pudding") is indeed to force people to reconsider their health.

The reactions? Well, they're about what you expect. Everyone quoted in the article who saw the fat cadaver had immediate reactions... to lose weight, or diet, or both.

"I'm just amazed at how this person was being squished by his fat," said [visitor Stacy] Estrada, a 19-year-old college student from Covina. "This is a person trapped inside his fat. No more fast food for me, that's for sure."

"I'm grossed out, but I can't not look," said 29-year-old Aurora Romero, a drafter from Long Beach. "It's interesting to see all that fat. But I can't look at it very long." The upshot of all this? "It makes me want to lose weight really badly," she added.
The message to lose weight and be thin has gotten so pervasive that it has now found its way into less conspicuous places. While I certainly wouldn't walk away with the same reaction as these people, I'm sure many would. [Many people sent this in - thanks!]

Posted on February 22, 2005 in Quest for Thinness.

Many articles linked require a login to view. You should use bugmenot to access a username and password.

Comments.
I don't remember that from the London version of this exhibit. Unbelievable.

Posted by tholian8 on February 22, 2005 08:43 AM.

It's Southern California--Ken-and-Barbie-Land. What did you expect? Disgusting.

Posted by Terri on February 22, 2005 09:29 AM.

i am amazed at the number of educated people who seem to believe that adipose tissue is composed of some toxic substanceand that it smothers and suffocates the body's organs rather than cushioning and protecting them.

Posted by profe on February 22, 2005 11:11 AM.

This is just horrible. It should be called a museum to promote bigotry and prejudice.

Posted by Carolyn on February 22, 2005 01:34 PM.

Okay, it's a cadaver, right? As in it originally was a walking talking human being? Somebody's father, somebody's husband/lover, somebody's son, somebody's best friend? Somebody who thought it was a good idea to donate their body to science, only to wind up an object lesson for a fat-hating culture. Absolutely disgusting. Just reinforces the stereotype that fat "people" aren't really people at all.

Posted by AmyZawn on February 22, 2005 02:42 PM.

The other horrible thing about this - is calling it "Suicide by Fat". Like that's the only possible reason this person died and all thin people will live forever, if they only manage to remain thin. What a ridiculous and absurd title for the exhibit!

Posted by Carolyn on February 22, 2005 06:01 PM.

Carolyn - the exhibit is titled "Body Worlds," not "suicide by fat." Only one piece bears that title.

Here's the "plastination" bookmark: http://www.bodyworlds.com/

The man's work is a little on the gross side, if you're sensitive to those things, but kind of fascinating, too.

Posted by scoyote on February 22, 2005 07:46 PM.

Of all the atrocities we have read about, I can't help but thinking that this is the worst. Pure evil!!! If there was ever anything to demonstrate the moral panic theory this is it. Respect for the dead is one of the last remaining taboos in society. That they would violate this person's remains like this should be unthinkable. Classic deviance scare behavior - human rights are abandoned because the fear is out of control and the ends are perceived to justify the means. Rational arguments can not provide enough amunition to help these people realize how sick and stupid they are. Gunther von Hagens would have made an excellent Nazi!

Posted by pani113 on February 22, 2005 11:44 PM.

Ooohh this makes me mad. I had felt that museums were one of the few places left that people could find some truth represented, but this article has taken one more shred of that credibility away. How do we know this plastilination process or whatever didn't affect the man's fat in such a way that it would appear disgusting and "spilled like pudding" but not true to his body's form while living? How do we even know that the plastic replaced the fat in the correct proportion (1:1)? And for heaven's sake, there are many reasons he could have had a pacemaker. I know a girl my age (mid 20s) who's had a pacemaker since she was very young due to a genetic heart condition at birth. I'm not saying this was probably the case for the man on display, all I'm saying is I'm disgusted that people can't think logically about possible causes for things and just automatically assume from the "context" that the pacemaker was "because he was fat."

Another thing that made me mad was this quote:
Rios, 34, who was at the exhibit with his 10-year-old son, Alex, added, "I'm trying to be more healthy, and I've been teaching him that it's not fun growing up overweight." Great. This is, obviously, exactly what von Hagens wanted, to scare people AND the children they bring to the museum (no doubt in an attempt to "educate" them) into trying to be healthy by avoiding obesity. Perhaps he's working on the next anti-fat magic pill on the side with the funding from this project???

Okay okay. So I'm a little fatalistic and have WAY too little faith in humanity tonight... latent teen angst or something.... but seeing stuff like this time and time again, it's no wonder.... anyway.

pani113, I definitely agree with you about the scare tactics and the use of fear to control people. It is especially hard to combat these notions when they've been instilled in people since a young and impressionable age. As for the violation of the sanctity of death, I also agree. Sure this man may have signed his body over to be used for science after his death, but did he really mean to be put on display in plastic and scoffed at and slandered in museums?? I'd think that if he had a grave to be turning in, he'd be making quite a ruckus........

Posted by lauramacsd on February 23, 2005 01:55 AM.

Am I the only person to find it shocking that such an exhibition exists at all? Sorry if I sound like a prude, but cadavers should be for the education of medical students, not for the general public's amusement. In the age of elaborate models and computer simulations there can be no claim that this is to educate the general public. It is purely for entertainment and I find that sickening.

Bodyworlds state that your donate your body "for the purposes of research and instruction". This man's body is on display as a freak show. What has that got to do with research or instruction? It's more of a case of look at the disgusting fat man! Bodyworlds describe this as a "valuable incentive for a healthier lifestyle"...

PS: You may be interested to know that not all cadavers are donated to bodyworlds, some are acquired from other "anatomical collections". This vague terminology can only mean that some of the displays originated from people who had no idea their body or body parts would be used in this way. Food for thought, isn't it?

Posted by lesley on February 23, 2005 04:02 AM.

This is what Gunther von Hagens said in an interview:

"With this technique of plastination," explains the Professor, "I can give back the holistic view of anatomy. That you can study the entirety of the body. Of course, that you can visually craft it, that it is not in fluid anymore, it is colourful, and it is not smelly."

Note that he seems to be fighting his own shame and fear of decomposition, his fear of becoming less than his own self-perceived standard of antiseptic, hard perfection.

Yes, people have lines that are not geometrically solid. People curve, people soften. They age. They die. The artist/doctor seems to be trying to defy the dynamicity of humanity and its natural cycles, as well as its natural variations in shape. This is in direct contrast to other artists we have seen recently who celebrate and glorify the differences in human shapes and forms and sizes. Upon further consideration, von Hagens' view of the body as art actually communicates itself as frozen and relentlessly controlling, as opposed to the "holism" he supposedly advocates.

Posted by fatthought on February 23, 2005 11:59 AM.

And he also said this:

"The last question came from the very last row and it was straight up to the point: " To what degree would you consider yourself a scientist and to what degree a buisness man?" Von Hagens suddenly felt revived: "from my childhood I learned that with money you can do everything. I never got any money for my research from any public institution, but as you see I am capable of making it myself"

Attacking fat makes money. Von Hagens wants to make money.

Posted by samus on February 23, 2005 01:38 PM.

ugh! That is really disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing this someday, but I would be humiliated to walk past that exhibit. What about the many thin cadavers? Are they called "killed by underweight!" No, of course not. I wonder of the fat donors knew they'd be dehumanized in death?

by Mob 2006-05-17 3:28 PM +0800
Dear Editors,

Your blogger, Simon Willace's post, "The Amazing (freak show) human body exhibition" violates your expressed editorial aim and objective "to preserve the quality of the website as a useful,
and credible media source." In a shoddy bit of "cut and paste" and mindless typing that masquerades as journalism, Willace draws a nonexistent association between "The Amazing Human Body," a cadaver show from China currently touring your country, and German anatomist, Dr. Gunther von Hagens.

Among the falsehoods he disseminates via your "useful and credible media source," are the following:

* "Body works’, ‘Body World’ and ‘The Amazing human body’ Exhibitions now touring in Australia are trading names owned or associated with Dr. Gunther von Hagen’. An East German whose chequered career has included long terms spent behind bars himself.

*The company uses many names throughout the world to promote the displays created in Dalain and issues licences to so called 'copycat operators' like TAHB, but all exhibits are created in Von Hagan’s Chinese factories and are exhibited under licences offered only through him.

*Hagan now living in China is the inventor of the plastication process Registered trademark all rights reserved and holds copyright, he retains sole control over the process. He has always vigorously denied using executed prisoners for his touring freak shows and has insisted that each one has been donated.

*The bodies in all exhibitions are disproportionately young males. In China, the most likely source for large numbers of young male bodies would be prisons or labour camps.

While Willace may believe that truth is merely an exotic concept, I hope that the editors of Perth Indy Media will care about its absence in this blogger's "reporting."

Dr. von Hagens is not now, and has never been affiliated or associated with any anatomical exhibition other than those that bear his own name--Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS, currently showing in North America.

Dr. von Hagens was indeed in prison, not for criminal activity as Willace implies, but for attempting to defect from Communism. He was imprisoned by East German authorities in 1968 for attempting to cross the Czechoslovakian border into Austria and freedom.

In 1981, Dr. von Hagens filed a patent with the United States Patent Office for a 20 year patent for his invention, the Plastination process. The patent for “Animal and Vegetal Tissues Permanently Preserved by Synthetic Resin Impregnation," expired in 2001, when Dr. von Hagens no longer held proprietary privileges over his invention.

Outside of a small number of dissected specimens and fetuses acquired from established morphological institutes, such as anatomy and pathology programs, and historical anatomical collections, all the specimens on display in Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibitions stem from a unique Body Donation Program established in Heidelberg, Germany in 1982. Later managed by the Institute for Plastination (IFP) established in 1993, the Body Donation Program is the primary source of the specimens--bodies willed by donors during their lifetime for the express purpose of serving BODY WORLDS mission to educate the public about health and anatomy.

While other exhibits have revealed that they use unclaimed and found bodies originating from China, Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS has never needed to seek bodies from China or anywhere else for its exhibitions. Indeed, there are no Chinese plastinated bodies in Dr. von Hagens’ exhibitions. Currently, the Institute for Plastination has a donor roster of 6,800 individuals, which includes 208 North Americans. The already deceased on the IFP's donor roster number 350. In addition, the Chinese authorities stringently supervise the import and export of anatomical specimens of human origin from China, by Dr. Gunther von Hagens. Dr. von Hagens is bound by current regulations to export only anatomical specimens that originate from the Institute for Plastination’s Body Donation Program in Heidelberg, Germany.

All IFP documents relating to donated bodies have been scrutinized and approved by two ethics committees formed by the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where BODY WORLDS exhibitions took place in 2005. Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS declares categorically that it has never used bodies of executed Chinese prisoners, in its anatomical exhibitions of real human bodies. After Der Spiegel, a German publication, reported the use of executed Chinese bodies in the BODY WORLDS exhibition, an interim injunction was taken against Der Spiegel. In accordance with Germany’s laws, Der Spiegel is now restricted from claiming, among other things, either literally or by implication, that “Gunther von Hagens is exhibiting the corpses of executed Chinese prisoners in the BODY WORLDS exhibition.” According to the court, if the interim injunction is violated, Der Spiegel, must pay Dr. von Hagens a fine of 250,000 Euros. “I have never plastinated the bodies of executed persons, for, based on my ethical convictions, I disapprove of using such bodies for anatomical purposes,” Dr. von Hagens says.

Although the allegations were investigated and discovered to be unfounded by the highest court in Germany, these false and malicious statements continue to be circulated and disseminated by illegitimate reporters via the Internet, such as your blogger, Simon Willace, and often reported as fact by mainstream media. Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS has won interim injunctions in Germany against North German Radio, NDR and German TV Station, ZDF, and written agreements from T-Online and Suddeutsche Zeitung to prevent further dissemination of these false and malicious statements. Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS will continue to exercise its legal authority by suing for defamation, libel, and slander any individual or news organization that continues to publish or broadcast these false and malicious statements about Dr. Gunther von Hagens and BODY WORLDS.

It is a shame that any imbecile with a computer may strike a pose as a reporter and post online whatever he conjures up. The greater shame would be if a feisty independent media with noble editorial aims fell for his trickery and incompetence.

Gail Vida Hamburg
Media & Public Liaison
for Dr. Gunther von Hagens
& BODY WORLDS

e.mail: g.hamburg@plastination.com
http://www.bodyworlds.com

Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS
Unprecedented. Authentic. Inspiring.

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by Elvis C 2006-05-17 10:43 PM +0800
Gail,

What part of Simon's Article "masquerades as journalism?" It's not even pretending to BE journalism. Its just some random ranty/opinion/review thing.

You say "it is a shame that any imbecile with a computer may strike a pose as a reporter and post online whatever he conjures up."

Its not a shame. Its EMPOWERMENT! By the way - Indymedia is not a "blog." And ANYONE can post ANYTHING here.

"The greater shame would be if a feisty independent media with noble editorial aims fell for his trickery and incompetence."

Well thats your opinion. And thank fuck the Perth Indy eds have enabled you to express it! Just like Simon.

Thanks though for setting the record straight. I suggest you contact Simon and have a go at that bloke. A quick Google will get you the means: simonwillace@hotmail.com

Simon's work appears on many Independent media websites around Australia.

Perth IMC are the wrong target. Write your own right of reply! Just like anybody else can.

Goodonya Perth Indy!

Yours,
Elvis Clarish

Link here

Why not Plasticize me? it will last longer!
by Simon 2006-05-18 11:52 AM +0800
Before the article was published I emailed “The contents of Body Bags” C/O Body worlds for comment to establish whether AHB was one of theirs, they did not respond,

AHB did mention Hagan in its promotion, the association is therefore established

personally I find the greatest compliment is abuse from the target victims of an article, as there something in the old saying “You protest too much”?

As a right, I’ll reply by asking the following.

Why is Von frankenstine's industry in China when bodies are available elsewhere?

Who is, if not he, producing these other displays for so-called copycat freak shows?

is'nt that authority and association?

Why were the artificialzed human remains I saw all Chinese?

Were they a job lot? A Special order? Sourced from a community who all got together on one sunny day in China two years ago and said “when we die we would like to be made into a plastic sculpture and put on display" just before commited mass suicide??.

All chinese, all under thirty, all male and all willing to arrange there own transportation.

Yeah I can see that happening, all very likley.

The author of the protest should develop a greater understanding of how to successfully lie, because the attempt needs a little work

My article was honest, researched & original, (mostly) except for related execution body transplant organ material, that came from the Guardian, Amnesty and the Epoch Times.

Media that will attack China from time to time whereas our government nor its supporting media will.

So is that how they get away with it?

Every ones too scared of upseting the Chinese.

So to sum up I guess the article was as origanal as any report or opinion, and the evidence was tabled as circumstancial.

I will admit I need an editor, but as the "protester who protest too much" has that advantage over me, the opinion or attack is therefore a mute point.

I ask who is this twat who cut and pastes my work without my permission in a failed attempt to discredit me? What are their Motives?

I think we all know the reasons, what I want to know is should we be prepared as a society to allow this exhibition to continue without an investigation?.

Reposted by Simon, grateful for every responce

Simon is not the first to raise some curly questions.

Dr. von Hagens is not now, and has never been affiliated or associated with any anatomical exhibition other than those that bear his own name--Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS, currently showing in North America.
---------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.koerperwelten.de/en/pages/gunther_von_hagens.asp

According to this website the private company that Von Hagan has been running in China employs 150 people. Quite a large operation by anyone's standards. The human specimen in this picture looks very similar to the one I saw recently in Aus. Is this a coincidence?

There is a saying in Italian "La verita offende" (truth offends)

Have a look at this website from telegraph.co.uk too.

Body parts exhibition raises concerns over missing dissidents
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
(Filed: 12/04/2006)

Demonstrators are expected to hold a vigil today at the opening of the latest human body parts exhibition in London because of concern over the origins of the human remains from China.

Human rights groups fear that some of the remains may be those of dissidents or political prisoners executed by the Chinese authorities.

Bodies - the Exhibition opens today at Earl's Court showing 22 corpses and 250 organs and other body parts.

Gunther von Hagens, a German, pioneered the phenomenon five years ago.

Premier Exhibitions, an American company, says it obtained the bodies from the Dalian Medical University of Plastination Laboratories in China.

Dr Roy Glover, the chief medical adviser to the exhibition, insisted yesterday that he and Premier Exhibitions - which has paid a reported £12.5 million to "lease" the remains from Dalian - have been assured by the Chinese that the remains are all from people who died from natural causes without next of kin.

But it is believed that there are three prison camps near Dalian and human rights groups suspect they may be the source of some of the bodies.

Two years ago Dr von Hagens was accused of using the bodies of political prisoners. He strenuously denied this, but did return seven bodies to Dalian after two were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads.

Dear Artist,

I'm laptopping you from "Café Red" at the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. Having just stepped out of a remarkable exhibition, I'm thinking it's worthy of a note. Imagine life-sized sculptures of naked men kicking soccer balls or conducting an orchestra. Now imagine that these sculptures are made from the carefully preserved remains of real people.

Bodies--the Exhibition is the creation of a group of doctors whose life work is anatomical research. Accessing cadavers from Chinese prisons, whole persons, as well as isolated systems--skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, reproductive, etc., are displayed in a series of theatrically darkened rooms. Everything is well annotated and explained. "Seeing," says team leader Dr. Roy Glover, "promotes the most practical kind of body education."

Produced by a process known as Polymer Preservation, tissue water is first removed by immersion in acetone and followed in turn by its removal in a pressure chamber. Then the previously acetone-filled areas are impregnated with liquid silicone rubber and cured with a catalyst hardener. The result is a realistic rubberized specimen that will not suffer decay.

By combining artistry with keen observation, historical artists like da Vinci, Titian, Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt made contributions to our understanding and appreciation of the human form. In this exhibition you are face to face with a new reality--you marvel at the inner beauty, logic, and complexity of it all. For the figurative painter there's the miracle of musculature.

Ethical concerns aside, these deconstructions fly apart to reveal how form follows function. And from a miniscule three-week-old fetus to the infirmity of age, our bodies are open to a steady march of imperfection and disease. No organ is spared. These nameless persons with exposed brains and open hearts have timeless eyes that stare at you and say: "I am a work of art, please respect how I work."

"A prurient shock to the senses," says one of the many critics. Like a contemporary art installation, which it doesn't claim to be, there's mind-bending magic. Art and understanding join hands and we are named "Homo curiosi."

Best regards,

Robert

Ps: "Your body is the only thing you carry with you from the moment you are born until your very last breath. Knowledge of its structure and function is the most useful information a person can possess." (Dr. Roy Glover, University of Michigan)

Esoterica: It's the brain that these doctors find most difficult to preserve. Our brains are made mostly of lipids (fats) and water. During the Polymer Preservation it shrinks a great deal and requires special treatment. As well as in New York, "Bodies" is currently being shown in Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and London, England.

Out here on this sunny sidewalk café, the waiter hovers. To the side of this laptop there's a menu. I need to choose something that will go down nicely with the least amount of fuss.

the exhibitors left out some of the most obvious questions. Of course these bodies came from China. I would have been so much more impressed had the good doctors used the bodies of their own parents, wives and children that had predeceased them. Anyone who wants to appreciate the intricacy of the human body can go to George Washington University where I suspect the amazing anatomical exhibits in their museum came from people who legitimately donated their remains.

The exhibition that you describe smacks of the tradition of the freak show and one can only wonder how these remains were procured. I'm enclosing a paragraph from Slate that I found this afternoon that speaks to this sense of our right to purchase anything we want because we have the money.

(William Saletan on Human Nature, Science, Technology, Slate...April 21, 2006) British experts suggest China may be executing prisoners to sell their organs.

China executed at least 3,400 people last year, more than any other country. Human Rights Watch previously said China had harvested as many as 3,000 organs from executed inmates each year. Last month, China admitted that organs had been taken from some prisoners without pre-execution consent, but it claimed that this practice was illegal and rare.

Now the British Transplantation Society says 1) evidence suggests organs "in the thousands" are being taken without consent of prisoners or their families; 2) the transactions "involve payment of money and may implicate … patients and the authorities and judiciary responsible for the prisoners"; and 3) according to a BTS official, "It almost sounds as though the timing of an execution is at the convenience of the timing of a transplant." (For China's crackdown on the sale of sperm and eggs, click here.)

I'm interested in whether there is money being made as this "exhibition" travels. Without more information on this disquieting lack of respect for human remains, I can only go with my first reaction that I truly believed that Damien Hirst was on the cutting edge of art for shock sake and disrespect for life. Now I see that the great American dollar can break those barriers.

(RG note) Thanks , and thanks to the many others who brought these concerns to our attention. Writers have also pointed out that there are several different exhibits going on around the world at the present time-the work of separate promoters and organizations.

Other exhibitors include Body Worlds, Body Exploration and The Universe Within. The one I saw, Bodies-the Exhibition was put on by Premier Exhibitions Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia. These various shows may or may not use executed persons with or without their prior permission, and the persons used may or may not be from Chinese prisons.

You bet, money is being made from these exhibitions. As there is a possibility that the exhibition I attended used unwilling and perhaps executed Chinese political prisoners, I've asked Andrew to remove all "Bodies" images from our website and replace them with ones from another exhibition Body Worlds, where well-documented, willed bodies are used.

Reposted by Simon, their is opinion , and we are closer to the truth.

But who prepares the wrong stiffs?

If the Chinese have a few left over dissidents to disect maybe hollywood can use them for stunt doubles in action movies?

Well it would make them more realistic, and all that CGI is getting SO BORING!

Maybe the next 'Amazing' tour should feature American or Australian soldiers killed in action fighting civilians.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

The familiar 'Die In' where demonstrators lay on the road could be a real eye catcher with lots of plastic bodies in the throws of terrible agony, sourced from the coalition wars.

Plastic bodies from Von Frankenstein’s kitchen in China from collateral damage created by the west in the middle east.

What about?

“Globalized crimes against humanity exhibition” or “body bags from Iraq, exhibition”.

A unique experience, inspired, worth bottling.

It’s a partnership made in heaven.

Who’s going to invest? Anyone in for a plasticised ill gotten gains?

i dont think you undertand what this is all about, you see it shows how and what the body looks like and works. i think people should be able to see and understand what we really are. oh and those people who wre living only two years ago, they WANTED to be used scientifically. they WANTED to be given away for other uses instead of just being burried or burned.
i think that this exhibition is very interesting and educational.
i intend to go to the exhibition when it comes my way because i know that this is something people should see. the only bad thing about it that i can see is that we have to pay to get in. but thats not much.
so you see, this is not a "freak show" its one of the best exhibitions i've heard of. just because you probly cant stomach what you really are does NOT meen this is a freak show.
thank you

do people have ANY ethics?

these people USED TO BE ALIVE!

their bodies are abused.

i do not see how, after being skinned, filled with pastic and to then be positioned in ironicaly 'life like' postitions people can walk through an excebition that is filled with contreversy and call it 'art' and 'science'!

if people were so interested in the way their bodies worked then i would recomend taking a visit to your local library or doctor.

Wow, you are wrong or inaccurate in so many areas of this article it is stunning. This is a great example of bad blogging.

Learn to write. Why is your English so bad? You're meant to be a journalist! Even if you have no respect for factual accuracy, you could at least have some respect for the tool of your trade and for your audience. Emotion alone is no substitute for clarity. This hurt to read. Really.

The article is ages old, so whats all the sudden interest?

Is it because the freak show is on it's way to Melbourne??
Is that it??

Who are these idiots?
Gunthers industry is under attack worldwide, the Age ran a simular story a few months back and nothing happened to stop the slaughter of these chinese subjects.

Our government has said nothing.

Now in the days before the exhibition comies here, two comments on the same day breath new life into Simons advantage.

Simons not a journalist, he just wrote something that people around the world found out about. Those who attack him found nothing else.

Who cares if they were harvested criminals? At least they finally found a good purpose for their useless lives.

Sounds like a sci-fi horror movie.

I saw the show in Las Vegas and was very impressed. It was tastefully and professionally done. I learned a lot from this exhibit. People would normally never see this unless they were 3rd year medical students or seriel killers.

The exhibits (cadavers) were all Chinese it seemed and I instantly thought of body trafficing as they have no concern for human life.

Welcome to the future.

I saw Body Works 3 when it came to Houston and it actually reinforced my decision to quit smoking once I saw the exhibit on the "smokers lungs".

Granted yes it is rather macabre, and some of it is presented as "art", there is nothing there that is nearly as graphic as having to do my 4000 lvl psychology experiments on the structures of rats brains while attending a research university.

I agree with your point that this may be a form of voyerism, but with your idea that these people were "killed off to look pretty" I simply disagree. I think this is honorable in the context that it is served here, I beleive it is more science than "ooooo nasty!"

Just my opinion