Preserved Corpses For Sale
February 5th 2008 17:07
Can anybody lend me £45,000? Or even £200?!!
A controversial German doctor who invented a technique for preserving corpses plans to sell his stomach-churning creations online.
Gunther von Hagens, who wears a trademark black fedora even while performing TV dissections, will sell a whole “plastinated” body for £45,000.
Or, if owning a dead human has always been your dream but you can't quite spare the same amount of cash that would buy a top-of-the-range Mercedes, a slice of stomach costs just £200.
Until now, he has only sold cross-sections, where plastinated organs are clearly visible, to universities as teaching materials.
But now private individuals will be able to buy slices of corpses too.
Dr Von Hagens' assistant Nadine Diwersi told German newspaper Das Bild: "We are able to quickly produce large quantities with high quality and for a good price."
A cross-section down the length of the body will cost £9,000, while a cross-section across the body will be priced at £200, or “£1,200 for a 16-slice set.
A typical corpse can produce eight vertical cross-sections or 230 horizontal cross-sections.
However, only a minority of the donated bodies will be available for purchase by private individuals as 80 percent of donors, who make their bodies available free of charge to von Hagens, stipulate that they can only be used "for scientific progress."
There's another hitch: the German law against "disturbing the peace of the dead" which makes it illegal to commit "insulting mischief" with the body parts of the deceased.
Miss Diwersi said their lawyers were currently investigating the conditions under which corpse slices could be sold to private individuals.
However, she expressed optimism that "in three or four months, anyone will be able to buy the slices on the Internet or in our Plastinarium."
Around 25 million people have reportedly viewed Dr von Hagens' "Body Worlds" exhibitions, which show preserved human specimens in a variety of poses, in cities across Asia, Europe and North America over the last 10 years.
via Daily Mail
Gunther von Hagens, who wears a trademark black fedora even while performing TV dissections, will sell a whole “plastinated” body for £45,000.
Or, if owning a dead human has always been your dream but you can't quite spare the same amount of cash that would buy a top-of-the-range Mercedes, a slice of stomach costs just £200.
Until now, he has only sold cross-sections, where plastinated organs are clearly visible, to universities as teaching materials.
But now private individuals will be able to buy slices of corpses too.
Dr Von Hagens' assistant Nadine Diwersi told German newspaper Das Bild: "We are able to quickly produce large quantities with high quality and for a good price."
A cross-section down the length of the body will cost £9,000, while a cross-section across the body will be priced at £200, or “£1,200 for a 16-slice set.
A typical corpse can produce eight vertical cross-sections or 230 horizontal cross-sections.
However, only a minority of the donated bodies will be available for purchase by private individuals as 80 percent of donors, who make their bodies available free of charge to von Hagens, stipulate that they can only be used "for scientific progress."
There's another hitch: the German law against "disturbing the peace of the dead" which makes it illegal to commit "insulting mischief" with the body parts of the deceased.
Miss Diwersi said their lawyers were currently investigating the conditions under which corpse slices could be sold to private individuals.
However, she expressed optimism that "in three or four months, anyone will be able to buy the slices on the Internet or in our Plastinarium."
Around 25 million people have reportedly viewed Dr von Hagens' "Body Worlds" exhibitions, which show preserved human specimens in a variety of poses, in cities across Asia, Europe and North America over the last 10 years.
via Daily Mail
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