Saying that it’s ‘artistic’ or ‘instructive’ is nothing more than justification.

I didn’t think of it later but a husband and wife team is doing this? I don’t want to begin to tell you the questions that come to mind over that.

Beside the educational value, the displays are also artistic, both in the subtlety of the materials, for example, an entire central nervous system from brain to tiny filaments at the periphery, and in the merit in not just posing bodies or parts, but in exposing the anatomy. There’s a certain esthetic appeal to the sensuous curve of a kidney, say, just as there’s horrific malformation in a cirrhotic liver. Further, the artist has taken liberties for the sake of exposition, such as cm-thick transparent, colored saggital slices of a man arranged in order perhaps 35 mm apart. If you can see the beauty in a face, why not in the skull under it? If you respect science, craftsmanship, and an artistic vision, you will find Von Hagens’ work interesting, perhaps compelling.

Criminals’ corpses are used in one or more Chinese rip-offs of Von Hagens’ work, which I agree everybody should avoid for ethical reasons. Those shows don’t even plastinate the materials well–they leak.

Erasmussimo, yes I would absolutely consent to this. Though my current plans are to be cremated and turned into a giant concrete wiffle ball, which will be placed in the ocean for reef creation (eternalreefs.com). I feel that once I die, my body is mere flesh and my spirit no longer has a use for it. (Conversely I may die and that’s utterly the end, spirit included, so the body is still useless.) I’d rather that body be used for something positive, either to facilitate new life (by organ donation and/or through eternal reefs) or for education. I’d be honored.

i’m not uncomfortable with sexuality either, so i’m not offended. plus, i also see the artistic merit as bodies as sculptures.

I won’t be going.