NICK LAZAREDES : A human body, stripped of its skin sits atop the preserved carcass of a horse, proudly holding its brain in one hand and its heart in another. This is one of dozens of bodies on display at the grotesque Bodyworlds exhibition in London, which continues to enthral British visitors. These bodies are all real. They've undergone a process known as plastination - a process which turns flesh and bone into a permanent plastic form. But this exhibition has created a furore of protest from religious groups who see it as a cynical exploitation of the dead in the guise of art, but the man behind it is unrepentant.
PROFESSOR GUNTHER VON HAGENS : This exhibition is not about art or science, it's about instruction. Instruction in the fullest sense of the word - in that people attending the exhibition can realise their own vulnerability.
LAZAREDES : You might expect that the inventor of this bizarre development of anatomical preservation might be a bit odd, and Professor Gunther Von Hagens, the German scientist who invented plastination, doesn't disappoint. Seen here in this promotional video filmed at his Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, the undertaker-like Von Hagens is obsessed with plastinating the dead. He sees himself as a modern day anatomical visionary - a 21st century Da Vinci.
PROFESSOR GUNTHER VON HAGENS: I provide insights into bodily interiors. People can look inside. This only becomes possible when I can visualise partitions into the body or gaps in structures that are aesthetically worthwhile and instructive and then expand the resulting fragments. Open them like bodily doors or even move them around in relation to one another.
LAZAREDES : But despite the controversy, the maverick Professor Von Hagens has begun promoting the science of plastination outside of his native Germany. The past decade has seen scores of foreign anatomical specialists flocking to his Heidelberg institute to master his secret techniques. In turn, that's created a plastination boom in some unlikely corners of the world. Professor Gabitov is the chief anatomical specialist at Kyrgyzstan's Academy of Medical Science. The academy is one of two international centres of plastination - the other is in China. Under Professor Gabitov, the Kyrgyz academy promotes the distinct medical advantages of this unusual process.
PROFESSOR GABITOV, KYRGYZSTAN ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE (Translation): See? It's a foot. Here we can see the ligaments, bones and muscles. It's a prepared foot used for study purposes. It's harmless, see? It's a real human foot, but it's sterile. It's the real thing. No plastic cast-maker, no sculptor, will ever do better than the creator.
LAZAREDES : Largely unknown to the rest of the world, Kyrgyzstan's plastinators have had a busy decade. This museum in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, is a testament to their efforts. In fact, many of the bodies on display in Professor Von Hagens' Bodyworlds exhibition in London came from here.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): People go to art galleries and admire the external beauty of human body. But it's no less beautiful when seen from within. Actually, I tend to think it's more beautiful that way. Everything has a function and a place within the structure. In fact, that relationship has more harmony than the paintings of the famous masters. See, this area is called an iliac wing, here.
LAZAREDES : While other medical students toil away in basement morgues, gagging from the fumes of formalin, Professor Gabitov's students get a much more pleasant view inside the human body. Plastinated bodies offer some very distinct advantages over the traditional methods used by anatomists. Gone are the days of glass jars, bad smells and messy bits. Plastinated bodies have no odour, or contain any living microbes. Best of all, they can be stored anywhere at any temperature.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Let's go. We're going to our normal work area to continue with our work and keep gnawing at the granite of the Great Unknown. We're bound to get something worthwhile at some point.
LAZAREDES : Professor Gabitov clearly sees himself as a man of science, but down in the bowels of the medical academy, something more macabre is afoot. Turning corpses into plastic looks more like gothic horror than cutting-edge technology. People who ended up here are afforded precious little dignity in death. That raises the disturbing question of where the bodies come from. Professor Gabitov insists that they are all legally obtained according to Kyrgyzstan's laws.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): All bodies not claimed within 30 days are donated for anatomical purposes. This is the first source of incoming material. The second group consists of the bodies whom relatives refuse to bury or who had no relatives in the first place, no relatives at all. They are also forwarded to us after a 30-day wait.
LAZAREDES : The start of the process - when the unclaimed bodies still look disturbingly human - is the most grotesque. In an operation that looks like a multiple blood transfusion, a system of cannulas infuse plastic polymers throughout the bloodstream.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Right now this body will be immersed in water. We'll have cannulas attached to all these hoses and launch the system that will pump it with the polymerising liquid. This process will take up to 48 hours.
LAZAREDES : This body has only just begun its journey to full plastination, as the liquid polymers slowly seep through its veins. In an adjoining room, chemical baths betray little sign of their contents, but this is actually the longest and most crucial stage of plastination.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): This is the next stage - impregnation in special baths full of polymer solution. Here, look at this. When the material is ready look over here, can you see? It's oozing resin, I mean polymer. See the red spots?
LAZAREDES : For up to nine months, bodies will remain immersed in these tanks as the liquid plastics are infused into their solid tissues like bones and muscle. The specimens in the Kyrgyz medical academy museum have been literally spliced and diced in every possible configuration. Rather disturbing, given that most of the people on display here did not actually give their consent. Professor Gabitov agrees that the 30 day rule for unclaimed bodies may not be long enough for relatives to act, but he has a solution - the relatives are always welcome to take their loved ones home, if they miss the deadline.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): The thing is that the whole cycle of plastination takes about 8 to 10 months, sometimes up to a year. Therefore, at least for the first six months the body can still be recognised. And we still can return it. And it will look as if the person has only recently died. We don't have to remove the skin or anything. We just mount it somewhere or sit it on a chair, or rest it against a shelf. And it will keep at room temperature for decades and decades to come.
LAZAREDES : But the laidback corpse in the corner option in Kyrgyzstan is not shared by the rest of the world. The apparently ready supply of bodies for plastination is a live and controversial issue.
NTV NEWS ARCHIVE (Translation): Today in Novosbirsk, a notorious case was closed concerning dozens of dead bodies that were secretly smuggled into Germany.
LAZAREDES : Late last year Russian authorities in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk launched an investigation into the local medical school for illegally supplying dozens of bodies to Professor Von Hagens in Germany.
RUSSIAN POLICEMAN (Translation): The contract was cancelled, because it didn't conform to the articles of the relevant laws of the Russian Federation. We buried the bodies of the deceased that we found prepared for shipping abroad.
LAZAREDES : Several Russians were charged over the illegal body trade but Professor Von Hagens insists he did nothing wrong. Back in Kyrgyzstan, far from the controversy about body-snatching anatomists, Professor Gabitov can't see what all the fuss is about. He says many people actually choose to be permanently plastinated for posterity.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): There are still people with strong moral commitment who prefer their bodies to be used for the benefit of science and medicine rather than just be eaten by worms underground. Actually, so do I. I've donated my body to the school of anatomy.
REPORTER: You?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER: Really?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Yes, I signed a contract.
REPORTER: So what will happen to you?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): What could happen? When my stint on this earth finally comes to an end I think that my colleagues will turn me into some preparation used to further the study process at the school.
REPORTER: Aren't you frightened?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Why should I be? If it serves the needs of the living. The dead must serve the living.
PROFESSOR GUNTHER VON HAGENS : This exhibition is not about art or science, it's about instruction. Instruction in the fullest sense of the word - in that people attending the exhibition can realise their own vulnerability.
LAZAREDES : You might expect that the inventor of this bizarre development of anatomical preservation might be a bit odd, and Professor Gunther Von Hagens, the German scientist who invented plastination, doesn't disappoint. Seen here in this promotional video filmed at his Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, the undertaker-like Von Hagens is obsessed with plastinating the dead. He sees himself as a modern day anatomical visionary - a 21st century Da Vinci.
PROFESSOR GUNTHER VON HAGENS: I provide insights into bodily interiors. People can look inside. This only becomes possible when I can visualise partitions into the body or gaps in structures that are aesthetically worthwhile and instructive and then expand the resulting fragments. Open them like bodily doors or even move them around in relation to one another.
LAZAREDES : But despite the controversy, the maverick Professor Von Hagens has begun promoting the science of plastination outside of his native Germany. The past decade has seen scores of foreign anatomical specialists flocking to his Heidelberg institute to master his secret techniques. In turn, that's created a plastination boom in some unlikely corners of the world. Professor Gabitov is the chief anatomical specialist at Kyrgyzstan's Academy of Medical Science. The academy is one of two international centres of plastination - the other is in China. Under Professor Gabitov, the Kyrgyz academy promotes the distinct medical advantages of this unusual process.
PROFESSOR GABITOV, KYRGYZSTAN ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE (Translation): See? It's a foot. Here we can see the ligaments, bones and muscles. It's a prepared foot used for study purposes. It's harmless, see? It's a real human foot, but it's sterile. It's the real thing. No plastic cast-maker, no sculptor, will ever do better than the creator.
LAZAREDES : Largely unknown to the rest of the world, Kyrgyzstan's plastinators have had a busy decade. This museum in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, is a testament to their efforts. In fact, many of the bodies on display in Professor Von Hagens' Bodyworlds exhibition in London came from here.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): People go to art galleries and admire the external beauty of human body. But it's no less beautiful when seen from within. Actually, I tend to think it's more beautiful that way. Everything has a function and a place within the structure. In fact, that relationship has more harmony than the paintings of the famous masters. See, this area is called an iliac wing, here.
LAZAREDES : While other medical students toil away in basement morgues, gagging from the fumes of formalin, Professor Gabitov's students get a much more pleasant view inside the human body. Plastinated bodies offer some very distinct advantages over the traditional methods used by anatomists. Gone are the days of glass jars, bad smells and messy bits. Plastinated bodies have no odour, or contain any living microbes. Best of all, they can be stored anywhere at any temperature.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Let's go. We're going to our normal work area to continue with our work and keep gnawing at the granite of the Great Unknown. We're bound to get something worthwhile at some point.
LAZAREDES : Professor Gabitov clearly sees himself as a man of science, but down in the bowels of the medical academy, something more macabre is afoot. Turning corpses into plastic looks more like gothic horror than cutting-edge technology. People who ended up here are afforded precious little dignity in death. That raises the disturbing question of where the bodies come from. Professor Gabitov insists that they are all legally obtained according to Kyrgyzstan's laws.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): All bodies not claimed within 30 days are donated for anatomical purposes. This is the first source of incoming material. The second group consists of the bodies whom relatives refuse to bury or who had no relatives in the first place, no relatives at all. They are also forwarded to us after a 30-day wait.
LAZAREDES : The start of the process - when the unclaimed bodies still look disturbingly human - is the most grotesque. In an operation that looks like a multiple blood transfusion, a system of cannulas infuse plastic polymers throughout the bloodstream.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Right now this body will be immersed in water. We'll have cannulas attached to all these hoses and launch the system that will pump it with the polymerising liquid. This process will take up to 48 hours.
LAZAREDES : This body has only just begun its journey to full plastination, as the liquid polymers slowly seep through its veins. In an adjoining room, chemical baths betray little sign of their contents, but this is actually the longest and most crucial stage of plastination.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): This is the next stage - impregnation in special baths full of polymer solution. Here, look at this. When the material is ready look over here, can you see? It's oozing resin, I mean polymer. See the red spots?
LAZAREDES : For up to nine months, bodies will remain immersed in these tanks as the liquid plastics are infused into their solid tissues like bones and muscle. The specimens in the Kyrgyz medical academy museum have been literally spliced and diced in every possible configuration. Rather disturbing, given that most of the people on display here did not actually give their consent. Professor Gabitov agrees that the 30 day rule for unclaimed bodies may not be long enough for relatives to act, but he has a solution - the relatives are always welcome to take their loved ones home, if they miss the deadline.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): The thing is that the whole cycle of plastination takes about 8 to 10 months, sometimes up to a year. Therefore, at least for the first six months the body can still be recognised. And we still can return it. And it will look as if the person has only recently died. We don't have to remove the skin or anything. We just mount it somewhere or sit it on a chair, or rest it against a shelf. And it will keep at room temperature for decades and decades to come.
LAZAREDES : But the laidback corpse in the corner option in Kyrgyzstan is not shared by the rest of the world. The apparently ready supply of bodies for plastination is a live and controversial issue.
NTV NEWS ARCHIVE (Translation): Today in Novosbirsk, a notorious case was closed concerning dozens of dead bodies that were secretly smuggled into Germany.
LAZAREDES : Late last year Russian authorities in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk launched an investigation into the local medical school for illegally supplying dozens of bodies to Professor Von Hagens in Germany.
RUSSIAN POLICEMAN (Translation): The contract was cancelled, because it didn't conform to the articles of the relevant laws of the Russian Federation. We buried the bodies of the deceased that we found prepared for shipping abroad.
LAZAREDES : Several Russians were charged over the illegal body trade but Professor Von Hagens insists he did nothing wrong. Back in Kyrgyzstan, far from the controversy about body-snatching anatomists, Professor Gabitov can't see what all the fuss is about. He says many people actually choose to be permanently plastinated for posterity.
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): There are still people with strong moral commitment who prefer their bodies to be used for the benefit of science and medicine rather than just be eaten by worms underground. Actually, so do I. I've donated my body to the school of anatomy.
REPORTER: You?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Yes.
REPORTER: Really?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Yes, I signed a contract.
REPORTER: So what will happen to you?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): What could happen? When my stint on this earth finally comes to an end I think that my colleagues will turn me into some preparation used to further the study process at the school.
REPORTER: Aren't you frightened?
PROFESSOR GABITOV (Translation): Why should I be? If it serves the needs of the living. The dead must serve the living.