German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, inventor of the plastination technique and creator of the 'Body Worlds' exhibition, has died at age 81. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
Von Hagens' family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday. A statement they issued on Monday gave no further details. Von Hagens had announced in 2010 that he was living with Parkinson's disease.
Von Hagens trod a fine line between science, entertainment and commerce with his touring exhibits, as well as headline-grabbing actions such as a public autopsy.
At the heart of von Hagens' work was the so-called plastination process — replacing body fluids with liquid plastic that then hardens. That technique, which he started developing in the 1970s, prevented decay, left tissues intact and allowed him to display preserved corpses and their inner organs.
The resulting exhibition, "Body Worlds," first went on show in Japan in 1995. Two years later, the collection of partly skinless corpses went on display in von Hagens' homeland, overcoming an attempt by local church leaders to block its opening on the grounds that it was disrespectful. Von Hagens said he was helping viewers understand how their bodies work.
The anatomist "is forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead," von Hagens said of his work. "I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us," he said.
The shows used the corpses of people who agreed to donate their bodies. Von Hagens had announced in 2010 that he was living with Parkinson's disease.