Under the gaze of a 300-strong audience and a battery of TV cameras, the UK鈥檚 first public post mortem examination for 170 years took place on Wednesday night.
鈥淚 start with the 鈥榊鈥� cut,鈥� declared anatomist Gunther von Hagens, creator of the controversial Body Worlds exhibition, at a former brewery in London. The incision across the chest of the cadaver and down the centre of the torso to the groin began his defiance of Her Majesty鈥檚 Inspector of Anatomy.
The Inspector, Jeremy Metters, had declared the autopsy illegal: 鈥淧rofessor Von Hagens does not hold a licence under the Anatomy Act, and the premises in which the post mortem is intended to take place are not licensed.鈥�
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After the event the police issued a statement saying: 鈥淧olice officers attended the event, accompanied by expert witnesses. A report will be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service in due course and if any offences are identified then appropriate action will be taken.鈥�
The public autopsy had been justified by von Hagens as demystifying the post mortem examination, which anyone might have to sanction for a dead relative. He likened the medical profession to medieval priests who would not allow ordinary people to read the Bible. And he also cited the concerns voiced by doctors at the decline in post mortems following scandals in which some UK hospitals retained organs without permission.
But many doctors criticised the show as a publicity stunt designed to raise von Hagens鈥� profile, rather than that of anatomy. Harold Ellis, an anatomist at Guy鈥檚 Hospital Medical School, London, left half-way through in disgust: 鈥淚 think he is a charlatan. It looked like a butcher鈥檚 shop.鈥�
Cause of death
The overall reaction of the audience was mixed. A few people left the room when von Hagens produced a hacksaw and announced he was about to cut open the skull.
And by the second half of the evening, when organs taken from the body were analysed to establish the cause of death, the audience had significantly thinned. But when parts of brain, lung, and kidney were passed around the audience on trays, the response was pure fascination.
When the organs were tipped back into the empty body, a piece fell to the floor and was quickly scooped up. A mixture of nervous laughter and horror rippled through the audience.
Artist Jake Chapman, who came out of 鈥渂asic curiosity鈥�, commented: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been very carefully stage managed. I think Von Hagens has an idealistic notion that showing bodies will demystify death, but this was like pornography. Maybe it鈥檚 his ego that needs dissecting.鈥�
Drawn out
Another concern was that the autopsy did not in fact replicate a standard post mortem. The cadaver of the 72-year-old man had been preserved in formaline for the eight months since he died.
John Lee, a consultant histopathologist from Rotherham General Hospital in South Yorkshire told 快猫短视频: 鈥淚 regret the body was not fresh. It made the process more drawn out than it could have been.鈥�
Tanja Smyth, an osteopathy student in the audience agreed: 鈥淭his didn鈥檛 look real, but it鈥檚 better than nothing, it鈥檚 a step forward.鈥�
But Lee, who provided a commentary for the audience, added: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it would have gone ahead with a fresh body for health and safety reasons.鈥�