• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Urn Garden Home
  • About

Life in the Garden

Matters of Life and Death

  • Blog Home
  • Confessions
  • Featured Products
  • Memorial Service Ideas
  • Pets
You are here: Home / Confessions / Corpse Cash Cow

Corpse Cash Cow

June 13, 2007 urngarden.com

Ok, Sunday we’re perusing the classified section and ran across this ad:

Premier Exhibitions the leader in Museum Quality Exhibitions is looking for team members for the newest and most exciting exhibit in Branson next to the Imax called
BODIES: THE EXHIBITION

Click. Whirrrrr.

I’d just finished reading  “Remember Me”, by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, and recalled her interview with German anatomist Gunther von Hagens who pioneered the technique of body plastination.

In 1996, he opened his first exhibit featuring whole-body dissected corpses and flayed cadavers. He called it “Body Worlds” and, over the years, various incarnations of his exhibit have opened in London, Tokyo and Los Angeles, among others.
Von Hagens’ Web site claims that more than 20 million people have visited his various shows. And with numbers like that, it’s no wonder imitators have jumped on the bandwagon.

Meet one imitator: BODIES: THE EXHIBITION. “Bodies” uses Chinese corpses. In cities such as New York, Miami and Las Vegas, “Bodies … The Exhibition” has drawn more than 2 million visitors since it started making the rounds in 2004. Evidently, Premier Exhibitions also handles the Titanic exhibits.

Von Hagen claims to have 6500 volunteers signed on as future specimens for his Body Worlds project. Most are German, where he has exhibited most frequently, but since launching the program in the USA he has signed 150 American donors.

Fun factoids about the future donors:

  • 45% are men
  • 55% are women
  • 30% are over age sixty
  • 5% are between 18-30 years old
  • Four out of 10 are Christian
  • Fully half of American donors say will allow their names to be displayed in the exhibits.

In a recent survey of body donors, the doctor posed a series of questions to judge the limits of donors’ tolerance for weirdness in the name of science.

  • Would they consent to being posed in a group, such as a string quartet?
  • Would they allow their bodies to be posed with a plasticized animal, like the horse and rider in the current exhibit?
  • Would they let their bodies be merged with an animal- say as a centaur?
  • Would they allow crucifixion?
  • Undergo a postmortem sex change?
  • To be displayed having sex?

Responses were mixed. Centaurs and sex changes were, for the most part nixed.

      The sex question? What a surprise! Many more men than women agreed to the sex proposition!

Regarding Branson attractions, saw an ad for a Segway scooter track.

Can you get air on a Segway?

Filed Under: Confessions

About urngarden.com

Urngarden.com has been active in the funeral industry since 2004 and strives to educate and comfort family and friends that are grieving the loss of a loved one. We provide beautiful cremation urns and memorials.

Primary Sidebar

Urn Garden Cremation Urns for Ashes

Recent Posts

  • What the Catholic Church Says About Cremation, Burial, and Funeral
  • Is Amazon Really A Good Place to Buy a Cremation Urn for Ashes?
  • Types of Cremation Urns that Families Buy Pt. 2
  • Types of Urns That Families Buy for Cremation
  • Kiss My Ash Cremation Urn Collection-Some of Our Craziest Personalized Urns for Adults

Pages

  • About Us

Death in the Digital Age

  • Beyond Indigo Grief Forum
  • Find A Grave
  • Seven Ponds
  • Show Me Urns (Our Sister Site)
  • Talking to Children About Death
  • The Daily Undertaker

Copyright © 2025 Urn Garden · Log in