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Wanna Buy a Slice of Corpse?

'Body Worlds' guy proves that everything's for sale

By Sam Gale Rosen, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 4, 2008 7:22 PM CST

(Newser) – Gunther von Hagens—the brains behind the plasticized human corpses featured in the hit Body Worlds exhibits—is now offering preserved corpse slices for sale. A short cross-section across the body costs about $370, but upgrading to a lengthwise slice will run to nearly $18,000. But only a minority of corpses donated to von Hagens will be available, since most donors stipulate a scientific use, reports Der Spiegel.

A German law forbids any "insulting mischief" with pieces of dead people, so von Hagens' lawyers are working out the details. Still,"in three or four months, anyone will be able to buy the slices on the Internet," says his assistant. A typical corpse yields eight vertical and 230 horizontal slices.

[Images (3)]

[Videos (2)]

Gunther von Hagens, the creator of Body Worlds, answers a reporter's question about the exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. (KRT Photos)

Gunther von Hagens, known as 'The Plastinator', explains the process of plastination, in front of one of his plastinated cadavers during the inauguration of his Plastinarium workshop and showroom in Guben... (Getty Images)

A full-body "plastinate" is displayed at Gunther von Hagens' "Body Worlds" exhibit in Dallas, April 3, 2007. The show, which puts real human specimens on display, has been fiercely criticized by some... (Associated Press)

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Body Worlds Exposition: Part 1 (WatchMojo (YouTube))

Body Worlds- An Anatomical Exhibition (stellacot10 (YouTube))

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Wanna Buy a Slice of Corpse?