Body Worlds provides Vancouver with brain candy

Body Worlds and the Brain exhibits plastinated corpses at Science World in Vancouver starting Sept. 15, 2010. (CTV)

Looking inside the human brain is normally a luxury reserved for doctors and scientists, but a new exhibition is giving everyone in Vancouver a chance to see what's really going on inside their heads, and some don't like what they see.

The popular and controversial traveling corpse exhibition -- Body Worlds -- returns to Science World this time focusing on the human brain.

Body Worlds and the Brain allows viewers the rare and sometimes shocking opportunity to look inside the anatomy of human bodies. Every single organ, muscle and eyelash is preserved through the complex process of embalming called plastination.

The result is an awe-inspiring collection of bodies old and young, diseased and healthy, all on display with educational notes about each one.

Body Worlds shows have attracted 30 million visitors worldwide since 1995 and encouraged over 11,000 people to donate their bodies to plastination. Ninety-six of those donors are Canadian.

Controversy over consent

Invented in 1977 by German doctor Gunther von Hagens, plastination continues to be a source of controversy. San Francisco, Seattle and the state of Hawaii have all banned cadaver shows based on arguments that some of the bodies were not donated with properly documented consent.

Dr. Angelina Whalley, creative designer and conceptual planner of Body Worlds, as well as the wife of von Hagens, told ctvbc.ca that their exhibitions require absolute consent from the donor themselves in order to be plastinated and exhibited.

"Consent from the vast majority of our body donation program is from the individuals themselves. Only in a few cases we accept bodies donated by family members and we do not use those bodies for public displays," she said.

However in China, laws allow for unclaimed bodies to be donated to science. Whalley said that some exhibitions that have modelled themselves after Body Worlds are using bodies that have not been donated ethically.

"The copycat exhibits in China are using so-called unclaimed bodies from poor people and there are even suspicions that they are also using executed prisoners. From my knowledge it is indeed common practice to give the executed bodies to anatomy research. We want to be very clear this is not what we are doing," Whalley said.

Educational experience or disturbing exhibition?

Whalley is passionate in her view that the exhibition offers a unique and life-changing educational experience to medical professionals and viewers. She calls it a type of preventative medicine because people get to see how their lifestyles actually affect their bodies.

For instance, she notes that juxtaposing a smoker's blackened lung to a non-smoker's, or a shrunken cirrhotic liver compared to a healthy one, can have a profound impact on influencing people to live a healthier life.

"After seeing Body Worlds, people have quit smoking, started exercising or stopped drinking. Our body is the total result of our lifestyle," she said. "People decide they will not take their bodies for granted anymore."

The show focuses specifically on the brain, which is something Whalley says is particularly interesting because it is the organ that has the power to shape our lives.

It is also the most difficult to plastinate because it's made up of mostly fats and soft tissue, making shrinkage a major problem. Most of the brains in the exhibit are slightly shrunken because of this.

Body Worlds first came to Vancouver in 2006 and drew more than 300,000 people to Science World. All cadavers are new except for the skateboarder, who has returned to the west coast for a second run. The fetal development section is also back and this time more controversial than ever.

Brian Tisdall, President of Science World, told ctvbc.ca that there will be signs warning that the fetal development section could be disturbing to some viewers. Tisdall said a community advisory group was formed to make sure the presentation of the show was respectful and appropriate.

In addition to showing unborn fetuses and babies at incremental stages of development, the section now includes the body of a pregnant woman who died of lung cancer while carrying a 5-month-old fetus. She is sliced down the front to show the pregnancy and down the back to show a portion of her cancerous lung.

Body Worlds vs. the Catholic Church

Tisdall is confident that schools, healthcare professionals and the public will all benefit from experiencing the new exhibit.

"I believe in the educational importance of the show," he said.

He said that seeing the exhibition first-hand is profound, but the value of discussing and contemplating the show after the fact can have a lasting and educational impact on viewers.

But some groups disagree -- including the Catholic Church. Father Fred Buttner of the Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver told ctvbc.ca that he condemns this exhibition the same way their Arch Bishop did in 2006.

"Those are real bodies and according to our belief they should not be exuded like that. They should be buried and laid to rest," he said.

He disagrees with those who think that the exhibit provides a valuable education to the public.

"I know in medicine schools they use unidentified bodies but that's for future doctors to learn. This exhibit is just for pure exhibitionism and not medicine. I'm sure people will learn something but it shouldn't be at the expense of real bodies," he said.

For Whalley, working in plastination and curating the exhibits has been a profound learning experience and she herself has planned to be a donor for many years.

"I don't have any children and my family is very small so it's a great opportunity to continue what I did all my life. It's valuable to me to give something back to society and allow people to learn from me."

Body Worlds and the Brain opens on Wednesday. The cost of admission is between $21 and $26 for adults and $13 for children.