How this bodies exhibit at Union Station, opening Saturday, differs from previous show

The top question Union Station gets about a new exhibit of preserved human bodies is how it differs from the controversial one shown here eight years ago.

The answer, according to the curator and designer of this exhibit, is that this one comes from the originator of the process, which was intended to assist in medical education. And the specimens were bequeathed by people who knew exactly what they were doing.

“As pioneers, I can tell you what was always most important to us and that is that the entire exhibition is done with utmost respect and dignity,” Angelina Whalley told The Star on a preview tour of “Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life,” which opens Saturday.

“And that definitely includes that all specimens are originating from a body donation program where people signed during their lifetime and decided knowingly what would happen to their body and for what purposes it would be used.”

Questions about consent plagued the 2008 exhibit, which came from a Chinese producer that Whalley refers to as a “copycat.” Her husband, Gunther van Hagens, invented the procedure called plastination in 1977 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

This exhibit differs from many that Union Station has offered. The walls are black, and there is no music or interactive stations. Spotlights focus the visitor’s attention on 14 full bodies and about 100 other specimens that have been peeled, flayed or otherwise opened up.

Station officials are emphasizing that the exhibit may inspire people to take better care of their bodies. A nonsmoker’s lungs are juxtaposed with the leathery black ones of a smoker. A cross section of the thigh of a person of average weight is shown next to one from an obese person.

One of the most poignant displays is the brain of a person who had Alzheimer’s. On the wall nearby is Ronald Reagan’s 1994 disclosure that he had been diagnosed with the disease.

Full bodies are posed to illustrate muscles involved in running or swinging a baseball bat. A pair of hockey players in the middle of a tight play is especially dynamic, as is a male acrobatic dancer lifting a female over his head.

The latter is the only display not enclosed in a protective case. Touching is not allowed. But the visitor has a 360-degree view of the full-body displays.

The preservation process involves replacing body fluids and fats with polymers. The exhibition calls the specimens “plastinates.” Whalley said her husband came up with the idea while slicing kidneys for demonstration purposes at the anatomy school at the university.

The only elements of the body displays that are artificial are the colored irises in the eyes, which are particularly difficult to plastinate.

The exhibit goes from human conception to a display about people who live to be centenarians. Plastinated fetuses at different stages of development came from medical collections, said a Union Station spokesman. A sign will alert visitors who may wish to bypass that gallery.

Visitors with children should also be aware that the full-body specimens, which are nearly all male, include genitals.

Whaller, who is chief executive officer of the Institute for Plastination, said visitors “stand in front of these specimens and all of a sudden they say, ‘That’s me I’m looking at,’” she said. “They start touching their elbows and body parts and say, ‘Ah, this is what it looks like.’”

Of course, not everyone will have that reaction. Union Station president and chief executive officer George Guastello said the end of the exhibit will be a room with a wall for social media posts. Visitors may tweet their thoughts and view those of other people. There will also be a comment book and a computer survey.

As with the 2008 bodies exhibit, local Catholic leaders have expressed disapproval. Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said they have ethical concerns in a joint statement published in The Catholic Key.

“The Catholic Church supports the pursuit of scientific knowledge and recognizes the value of using human specimens to train doctors and scientists in order to help them treat the sick and support human health,” the statement said. “However, the artful public display of posed human remains, while certainly fascinating, calls into question the proper respect being afforded to these human remains. The exhibit amounts to a kind of ‘human taxidermy’ that is inconsistent with the dignity due a deceased human body.”

The bishops said the exhibit is not appropriate for field trips for Catholic schools or youth groups.

“I understand the accusation is it’s undignified and respectless,” Whalley said. “From my point of view, it’s just the opposite. If you look at visitors, you will see that they don’t behave like in a marketplace or an amusement park. They pay respect. They are absolutely in awe and have reverence. For many of them, they say it is a spiritual experience.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 5:25 PM with the headline "How this bodies exhibit at Union Station, opening Saturday, differs from previous show."