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The professor behind a shocking exhibition in which corpses are displayed stripped of their flesh has revealed he is dying - and wants his body to be put on display.
Self-styled 'Dr Death' Gunther von Hagens is suffering from Parkinson's Disease and has been told he has seven years to live.
The 65-year-old German, whose infamous Body Worlds exhibition caused a global sensation when first displayed in 1995, told his staff about the disease after hiding its symptoms for two years.
Self-styled 'Dr Death' Gunther von Hagens is suffering from Parkinson's Disease and has been told he has seven years to live.
The 65-year-old German, whose infamous Body Worlds exhibition caused a global sensation when first displayed in 1995, told his staff about the disease after hiding its symptoms for two years.
'I want to decide where I will be exhibited,' said von Hagens, who caused outrage by showing stripped-back bodies having sex in one of his exhibitions.
'I can no longer hide the symptoms. My hands tremble, my language is vague, my movements are uncoordinated.
'Again and again I stumble around like a child. I have begun to lose skills I once had, knowing that they will never come back again,' he told workers at his laboratory in Guben, Germany.
Doctors have given the pathologist another seven years before he dies from the condition which he has attempted to treat with electric shocks delivered directly into the brain.
He achieved notoriety and huge wealth by creating his plastination technique to preserve the human body.
Von Hagens perfected the method, which involves removing fluid and fat and replacing them with plastic, between 1975 and 1982.
Now displays of corpses in everyday poses are proving a hit across the world including in Vancouver, Rotterdam, San Jose, Istanbul and Vienna.
The controversial anatomist hit the headlines in 2002 when he conducted a live post mortem on Channel 4.
Last year, his laboratory angered German Christians when it began to offer body parts for sale online, including plastinated 'slices' of corpses including a human head.
However, supporters of the scientist point to the fact that all bodies have been donated by people who want them to be displayed in such a manner.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ns-human-corpse-exhibition-grim-farewell.html'Again and again I stumble around like a child. I have begun to lose skills I once had, knowing that they will never come back again,' he told workers at his laboratory in Guben, Germany.
Doctors have given the pathologist another seven years before he dies from the condition which he has attempted to treat with electric shocks delivered directly into the brain.
He achieved notoriety and huge wealth by creating his plastination technique to preserve the human body.
Von Hagens perfected the method, which involves removing fluid and fat and replacing them with plastic, between 1975 and 1982.
Now displays of corpses in everyday poses are proving a hit across the world including in Vancouver, Rotterdam, San Jose, Istanbul and Vienna.
The controversial anatomist hit the headlines in 2002 when he conducted a live post mortem on Channel 4.
Last year, his laboratory angered German Christians when it began to offer body parts for sale online, including plastinated 'slices' of corpses including a human head.
The online shop has outraged leading members of Germany's religious community. In a joint statement, Protestant regional bishop Ulrich Fischer and Catholic archbishop Robert Zollitsch condemned the online body shop, which they said was 'breaking a taboo'.
Zollitsch said: 'Human dignity is sacrosanct - even after death - so the human body shouldn't be degraded and made into an object of spectacle, or a stock of spare parts.
'Germany must not be allowed to become a hub of the corpse trade.'
Zollitsch said: 'Human dignity is sacrosanct - even after death - so the human body shouldn't be degraded and made into an object of spectacle, or a stock of spare parts.
'Germany must not be allowed to become a hub of the corpse trade.'
However, supporters of the scientist point to the fact that all bodies have been donated by people who want them to be displayed in such a manner.
