11/21/2002: Public autopsy

Many moons ago we had an image (or maybe a quality image?) that showed a German artist who was preparing an exhibit of actual human bodies, posed in various ways, where the muscles and bones and whatnot would show? I can't remember the exact details of it, but I believe this is the same guy.

It's Professor Gunther von Hagens, shown at the table above, performing a public autopsy. With 350 people watching, he dissected a 72-year-old's body. The event was to include the passing around of bowls containing the gent's organs and whatnot.

The professor was warned ahead of time that he might face charges by staging the exhibition, but he fought to do it anyway. It all happened in London and now the Brit police are deciding whether to charge him, and will work it out over the next few days.

The story at Ananova

Originally posted by Undertoad
bowls containing the gent's organs and whatnot

Bowls of bowels? Better than plates of placenta I guess.

This sort of thing sounds like the story concept behind David Bowie's Outside CD, although on the CD, there's definitely a criminal element involved.

It makes you wonder how far we've come from the 14th and 15th century when the church would have anyone who performed an autopsy arrested...

Leonardo DaVinci used to have dead bodies smuggled to him so that he could perform clandestine autopsies on them.. He wanted to learn about the human body, from a medical perspective, but he also said that it was the only way that he could ever truly learn to paint people in a lifelike way.. .. examining them from the inside out.

It sounds strange... Likely he would have been executed (or maybe just excommunicated?) if found out though..

I read this story yesterday. Is the furor related to Britain's anti-vivisection laws?

Looks like a Thanksgiving Dinner amongest docter colleagues

"Ok who wants some dark meat?"

:D

Has the FOX network heard about this?

Originally posted by Mav
Looks like a Thanksgiving Dinner amongest docter colleagues

"Ok who wants some dark meat?"

:D

Wassamatta, Columbia, you've eaten Meatloaf before ...

Actually I think this is a really good idea. Not enough people really know what their insides look like except in fairly sterile pictures and diagrams.

Now my question is, why is the guy wearing a hat?

The thing that gets me is that it's entirely semantics and legislation. People who don't want to see guts and gore or who don't want to be educated abou anatomy in a very real and not "screened" fashion simply wouldn't have gone to see this... Where's the hurt? It's not like he's performing necrophilia. He's trying to teach here...

damn didn't someone else just have that conversation

Originally posted by And
The thing that gets me is that it's entirely semantics and legislation. People who don't want to see guts and gore or who don't want to be educated abou anatomy in a very real and not "screened" fashion simply wouldn't have gone to see this... Where's the hurt? It's not like he's performing necrophilia. He's trying to teach here...

No, he's not. What he performed bore very little resemblence to a standard autopsy, it was, in the words of one physician who attended, a "butcher's shop". This little episode was about self promotion, not about educating the public or demystifying death.

and he has seven more ready to go....

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2121545a12,00.html

also:

"The German wears a black fedora during operations in homage to past surgeon-performers who also wore hats as a sign of their authority. "