Comments from Body Donors to Body Worlds Exhibitions
Date of birth: 2.3.1952, female
“I am particularly interested in having my body used to educate the general public. Sadly, many of us know more about our cars than our bodies. By expanding our knowledge of our body, we can live healthier lives.”
Date of birth: 10.23.1949, male
“I happily agree with the observations of Prof. von Hagens because a person’s plastinated body serves a purpose with its beauty, naturalness, and diversity, namely research and the display of authentic, natural and instructive preparations for the whole of humankind. It is absolutely important for me to support the sensational work of Prof. von Hagens.”
Date of birth: 11.25.48, female
“I have been a registered nurse and teacher for 35 years. I know that anatomy is best taught with realistic models, I want to contribute to medical education. Now, I am disabled and unsure of how long, or to what extent I can continue to contribute to the healing profession, in this way I can contribute even after death.”
Date of birth: 10.16.1948, male
“I already had heard a lot about ‘Körperwelten,’ approval, disapproval, applause and repugnance. But when I saw the exhibition in Berlin I was so fascinated by the exhibits and the possibilities that Plastination opens up for medical training and all interested persons that I decided to donate my body to the IfP after my death.”
Date of birth: 07.16.1985, female
“My greatest hope with Plastination is that in the event I contribute nothing in life, I may do so in death. I recently visited the exhibit and found it absolutely amazing. I hope that one day people can look at me with the same sort of wonderment. I thank Dr. von Hagens for offering such a wonderful opportunity to those of us who might serve as nothing great in life; the chance to give man what he lacks most, the understanding of himself and especially the beauty in which we were created.”
Date of birth: 09.18.1969, male
“Being a physiotherapist I came across the following motto during my career: ‘Doubt increases with knowledge and you reach your limits much faster.’ Nevertheless, it never ceases to be a challenge for me to accompany my patients on their path and to balance body, spirit, and soul during therapy. The idea that I will continue to serve enlightenment and an improved understanding of the marvel of the human being after my physical death gives me great satisfaction and joy!”
Date of birth: 12.10.1939, female
“I was never able to be content with my actual life’s work to give birth to and raise children in order to avoid the extinction of humankind. I always asked myself ‘What are you still here for?’ And now, after I have heard of the possibility to release my body for Plastination after my death, I was immediately strongly fascinated with this fact. I always wanted to be buried on a green lawn to relieve my descendants four children with their families, of taking care of my grave, but now I have found a much better alternative by donating my body for scientific purposes.”
Date of birth: 06.08.1945, male
“I always dreamt of being a physician who unveiled the mysteries of the human body and helped his fellow human beings. As is the case so often in life, it was nothing more than a dream. But while studying organic chemistry (syntheses) and during my professional life that is closely related to practice, I discovered that I am not so far away from my ideal profession after all. All the things I produced during my work with raw material, pressure, temperature, and catalysts in the laboratories or in industrial installations are continuously produced by the body under normal conditions. Man, a colloidal system in a physical, chemical, and dynamic equilibrium still guards secrets waiting to be discovered. If I can somehow make a small contribution with my body donation I will come a little closer to the dream of my youth.”
Date of birth: 05.07.1960, female
“I have been a curative masseur and expert for medicinal baths for some years now. The interplay of body, spirit and soul is unique to me. The spirit and soul of most people slowly wither away, they lose their instinct. All beings of this earth are made up of the same elements, and yet they look different. The bad interplay of body, spirit, and soul leads to many changes during a person’s lifetime which become visible only after death. Aren’t they worth being preserved by Plastination? Anytime!!! Diseases come and go—future generations should be allowed to know and learn more about them.”
Date of birth: 05.29.1961, male
“In my view, Plastination represents an aesthetic art form which makes it possible to make a constructive, medical contribution, in spite of the reservations and prevailing resentments of our seemingly enlightened society, where the interested public can and should deal with terms such as death, moral, imagination, innovation, etc. in an instructive way. I hope that your exhibition will soon come to Hamburg.”
Date of birth: 09.25.1974, male
“Being a sports student I have a special relationship with my ‘body’ and I am therefore enthused about the possibilities that Plastination offers. Of course I also wish to contribute to the training of medicine students with my body donation, but above all I want to increase laypersons’ understanding of their own body. I am working in the field of heart sports and time and again I can see how little people care for their bodies and that the majority of people hardly appreciate their bodies. I believe that Plastination is very much suited to help laypersons to appreciate their bodies in a better way.”
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DMNS-05-94
Many of the Museum’s educational programs and exhibits are made possible in part by generous funding from the citizens of the seven-county metro area through the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
