Body Works Exhibit of Corpse Sex Causes Controversy

The latest Body Works Exhibit has opened in Berlin, Germany along with a great deal of controversy. This version of Body Works features a male corpse having sex with a female corpse. There have already been a number of public complaints.

There have been similar Body Works exhibits before, using bodies of people who had signed consent documents to be displayed in this fashion. The technique, developed by Gunther von Hagens, involves replacing body fluids and soluble fats with special plastics. In this way the corpse is preserved with muscles, nerves, and tendons exposed.

Previous Body Works exhibits, which have traveled all over the world, have depicted the preserved bodies doing everything from playing cards to riding a corpse horse. Body Works exhibits have included displays of body parts, including a comparison of a smokers' lung to a non smokers' lung.

The previous Body Works exhibits have been considered quite education and compelling and have attracted large crowds wherever the exhibit has traveled. The Body Works Exhibit in Berlin, dubbed Body Works: The Cycle of Life, is the first to depict corpses actually having sex.

According to CNN, "When asked about the coupling of sex and death, Gunther von Hagens told Germany's Bild that 'death and sex are both taboo topics. I'm bringing them together. Death belongs to life.' He added that 'without sex no life would exist.'"

What von Hagens failed to mention, however, is that when sex and death are brought together, it is generally called necrophilia and it is considered-well-kind of gross. Apparently, though, there is law against depicting two corpses having sex in Germany; it's just an offense against good taste. Art has long ago passed that line in the quest to "shock" and to "provoke."

The Body Works exhibit in Berlin has already provoked demands that the sex display be withdrawn, not only as being pornographic but as an "insult to the dead." Gunther von Hagens has told the media that the man and woman whose bodies comprise the sex display gave their informed consent to be displayed in that fashion.

The personal opinion of this writer is that the sex display, while perhaps a little unsettling, should not be withdrawn. It should be sequestered in a separate area, accessible only to adults who have been informed what they are going to see. Thus, if the couple has already given their consent to be displayed in a sexual position after death, and no one will see the display who is not an informed adult, then there should be no problem.

Source: Controversial doctor unveils corpse sex exhibition, CNN, May 7th, 2009