Dying person needed

Yes, you read correctly. That is the latest appeal being made by the man behind Body Worlds, the controversial ‘anatomical exhibition’ in London featuring 25 skinned corpses.

The macabre collection of bodies, posed to display anatomical functions, is the brainchild of German Professor Gunther Von Hagens, 58. All exhibits have been subjected to 'plastination' a process he invented, that replaces organ fluids with polymers and results in near perfect preservation.

Professor Hagens’s latest project is to modify a new donor body into the perfect human being — a super-human with super powers.

His ideas include:

Professor Hagens says his show educates people about the human form, and that the volunteer will be a landmark human. “It will pave the way for a more healthy, capable and longer-living body,” he says. “What we do with a real human body today will show what we can achieve in the future using genetic engineering.”

When completed (nine months after death) the exhibit will join more than 200 human plastinates of whole bodies, individual organs and transparent body slices — including lungs ravaged by tabacco, blackened tar and soot. Perhaps von Hagen has a point when he claims the greatest lesson of Body Worlds is the importance of good health. Some visitors have resolved to give up cigarettes or alcohol, eat more healthily and take up regular exercise, after the show.

You can see for yourself if it will affect you by visiting the Atlantis Gallery, where it’s currently showing.