Defying public protests, Dr Gunther von Hagens performed Britain's first public autopsy since 1830 last night. In front of paying audience of 500 at the Atlantis Gallery on Brick Lane the man behind the 'plastinated' body exhibition Body Worlds spent two and a half hours on the dissection of the preserved body of a 72-year old German businessman.

Before starting, the professor defended his actions to the crowd who had gathered outside the gallery. "This is a democratic country and I'm very sure there will be no arrests because at last, with your appearance here, the authorities in this county understand the time is over when medical knowledge could be confined to an elite."

The audience watched attentively as the dissection took place, with huge video screens allowing them to get a closer view of every incision. A Channel 4 film crew worked alongside the professor and his two assistants, capturing the event for nationwide transmission later in the evening.

For those squeamish members of the audience who had opened plastic shopping bags on their knees in case nausea set in, there was little blood to be seen during the proceedings. As the professor made his first Y shaped incision into the chest of the preserved body of a 72-year old German businessman, only a clear liquid seeped from the mouth.

The audience apparently remained unfazed by the proceedings, reacting with gasps only when the skull was sawed into and when the organs were lifted from the chest onto a tray. During an interval the audience were invited to get an even closer look, and there was soon a 'scrum' of people vying with each other to get a closer look.

The event was attended by several anatomy professors, asked to attend by Scotland Yard, who are currently analysing whether Professor Gunther von Hagens has broken the laws by going ahead with the event.

Body Worlds
23 March - 9 February
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Atlantis Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery
146 Brick Lane
London E1
www.bodyworlds.com

The super efficient Body Worlds publicity machine has outdone itself with the announcement that Professor Gunter Von Hagens is to do a live autopsy. Just in time to tell the UK media that the exhibition itself has just been extended into the New Year.

The maverick doctor is performing the first public dissection of a human body in 170 years against a storm of protest and the threat of protestors outside the doors of tonight's event. 200 paying guests and a Channel 4 camera crew will witness the autopsy. Uninvited guests may also include the police and the Department of Health who are demanding that the professor should be arrested if he goes ahead with the dissection.

The 90 minute procedure will take place in front of video screens enabling those attending a get a good view of what's happening. At various points in the proceedings metal trays will be handed round containing organs and tissue.

Professor von Hagens said that he was carrying out the autopsy with the aim of "educating people about their bodies and about death". He said nothing would deter him from performing an operation that was regularly held in public in the 16th century, usually in front of medical students.

The professor has however changed his plans to dissect the body of a 33-year-old woman who suffered from epilepsy, possibly to counter the planned demonstation by the charity Epilepsy Bereaved outside, and will instead perform the autopsy on the preserved body of a 72-year-old German man.

Body Worlds
23 March - 9 February
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Atlantis Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery
146 Brick Lane
London E1
www.bodyworlds.com

The new exhibit at the Body Worlds exhibition in the Brick Lane - 22 living human beings willing to become part of the Body Worlds show when they die.

In the latest installment of the highly effective PR campaign to get the Body Worlds exhibition onto the news agenda, the group of body donors met for a public meeting where they described their reasons for their decisions.

They become the latest members of the list of 5,000 people worldwide who have agreed to donate their bodies to German Professor Gunther von Hagens, the creator of the show, and the man behind the 'plasticisation' technique which perfectly preserves corpses for public exhibition.

"I feel that by doing this I will be helping to advance medical research and enlighten people about the human body," said Eulinda Clarke-Akalanne, 60, from Westonzoyland, Somerset.

"I have spoken to my children and at first they were very reluctant but they have become convinced, so much so that my youngest son wants to do it too. He is 22."

Raymond Edwards, 51, said: "For me it was about taking control of my death and what happens to me after I died. "I have been to so many funerals where I thought this person didn't want it to happen like this."

Body Worlds, has so far attracted more than 220,000 visitors to London.

Body Worlds
March 23 - Sept 29
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Atlantis Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery
146 Brick Lane
London E1
www.bodyworlds.com

Protestors will gather on Saturday 3 August to campaign against the Body Worlds exhibition currently showing at the Atlantis Gallery on Brick Lane. The exhibition controversially uses real bodies which have been 'plasticised'.

The protest will take place outside the gallery and the creator of the exhibits Prof. von Hagens has called on supporters of the exhibition to turn up, over fears that people will damage the exhibits. When the show first opened a man was arrested after smashing one of the bodies with a hammer in protest against the displaying of actual human bodies.

The instigator of this latest anti-Body Worlds demonstration, a Cumbria based artist named Martin Wyness, has told police he will protest in front of the entrance to the exhibition with up to 300 people. His call to action over the internet, he hopes, will attract many more.

Wyness made himself known to the exhibition during its first week of opening in London's East End at the Atlantis Gallery in Brick Lane. During this first protest he smothered the highly controversial, plastinate of a pregnant woman with a blanket and daubed the area surrounding the exhibit with red paint. After being forcibly removed from the exhibition Wyness criticised Body Worlds for showing "disrespect for the dead".

Body Worlds, has so far attracted more than 220,000 visitors to London.

Body Worlds
March 23 - Sept 29
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Atlantis Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery
146 Brick Lane
London E1
www.bodyworlds.com

Kids can see Body Worlds for free
Body Worlds, the controversial exhibition of real human bodies on Brick Lane is inviting school children up to and including 18 years and teachers from across the country to visit the exhibition for free in a special promotion which will run for two weeks on school days from the 29th of April to the 10th of May. Schools can obtain teaching materials free of charge. They include an exhibition video, a 100-page guide to the exhibition, posters and leaflets. These can be ordered at the exhibition, by faxing 020 7053 0020, or by sending an email to [email protected].

To take advantage of this incredible saving (the normal price for a child up to and including 18 years is £6 so a school group of 50 will make a saving of £300) please call the Body Worlds hotline on 020 7053 0010.
Read more about Body Worlds

The idea of paying £10 to go and see 25 cadavers may not appeal to all, but one and a half million people are expected see Brick Lane's Body Worlds exhibition. Organisers of the exhibition made the forecast when a press conference was given for the grisly new show. Heading the press conference was Professor Gunter von Hagens, the black fedora-wearing anatomist who developed this strange form of mummification. The process, 'plastination' involves draining the fluids from the organs, veins and tissues and replaces them with plastics.

With some trepidation the first people to see the exhibition wandered around examining sliced cross-sections of human viscera, a flayed man astride a skinless horse and most controversially the preserved body of a pregnant woman with her womb sliced open exposing her plastinated foetus. In other sections of the exhibition comparison are made between healthy organs and diseased ones.

Two police officers were present at the press conference, to control a rumoured protest, which failed to materialise. The protesters were expected to be the parents of the children who had their organs illegally removed at Liverpool's Alder Hay Hospital. The parents pleaded with the Government to have the exhibition banned but the Department of Health concluded no laws were being broken. The show, which is being promoted as an art exhibition, has much more in common with a museum show than an edgy east end art happening. However skillful these creations are, it seems bizarre that the public will pay £10 a head to see these ex-people. When asked about the matter of the entrance fee, Professor von Hagen said: " This talk of money is simply masking death denial."

Body Worlds
March 23 - Sept 29
Tickets: £10 (£8)
Atlantis Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery
146 Brick Lane
London E1
www.bodyworlds.com

Body Worlds website