'Dr Death', Body Worlds creator Gunther von Hagens, dies at 81

What the report says

Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who created the Body Worlds exhibitions of preserved human and animal bodies, has died aged 81, BBC World News reported, citing a family statement. The family said von Hagens died on Friday after being admitted the previous day to a clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, with a brain haemorrhage. He had lived with Parkinson’s disease for almost 20 years.

Von Hagens became widely known, and often criticised, for developing plastination, a preservation method in which bodily fluids and fat are replaced with rubber and polymers. According to the family statement reported by the BBC, he had requested that his own body be plastinated after death, and relatives said they would honour that request.

The BBC reported that more than 58 million people worldwide have visited Body Worlds displays. Supporters and colleagues described von Hagens as an inventor and researcher who helped bring anatomy to a wider public. His exhibitions were also repeatedly challenged by religious groups and other critics who objected to the public display of human remains and accused the project of exploiting death for commercial or voyeuristic purposes.

Born in Nazi-occupied Poland near the end of World War Two, von Hagens was raised in communist East Germany and later fled to the West in 1970. He developed plastination in the following years, first for educational and research use, before launching his touring exhibitions in the late 1990s. He also drew controversy in 2002 by carrying out a televised public autopsy in London, despite warnings from authorities, though no charges followed.