Plastinator 'Dr Death' has died. His last wish was to put his body through a horrific process
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Plastinator 'Dr Death' has died. His last wish was to put his body through a horrific process")
Gunther von Hagens, or Dr Death has died and his body will be plastinated. Photograph: (AFP)
Gunther von Hagens was a German anatomist who replaced body fluids in a dead body with plastic and exhibited it. He was widely criticised for his work. However, he has now died, and his last wish was to put his own body through the plastination process.
German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, also known as Dr Death, triggered horror across the world with his work linked to human dead bodies. He preserved human corpses for his Body Worlds exhibits. Once, he even conducted a post-mortem examination in public. The crux of his work was the "plastination process" where the body fluids were replaced with liquid plastic that then hardens. von Hagens' family and the Institute for Plastination said that he died on July 24. His last wish was to undergo the plastination process as well.
He started developing the technique in the 1970s, which prevents the body from decaying with tissues left intact. He then displayed the preserved corpses and their inner organs at exhibits. It sounds unreal, but this revolting practice is something that he became famous for. Now his own body will be put through the same process, as revealed by his family, who have already made it available for plastination.
Von Hagens was admitted to a clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, with a brain haemorrhage and died a day later. "It was Gunther von Hagens' own wish to make his body available for plastination after his death," the statement read. "His family will respect and carry out this wish."
Defending his work, Von Hagens used to say that it was a way to help people understand how their bodies work. "I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us," he said. He used the bodies of people who agreed to donate them for plastination after their death.
Meanwhile, critics said that his work bordered on sensationalism. Rev Ernst Pulsfort, spiritual rector of Berlin’s Catholic Academy, said that he "plays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls." One of his works showed a human body on a plastinated horse, while one was of a pregnant woman with a protruding belly.
At the Body Worlds show in London in 2002, he conducted Britain’s first public post-mortem examination in 170 years. Hundreds of people attended despite government warnings that it might be illegal.
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