What is your body worth? It all depends on how you use it.
Japanese scientists with too much time on their hands stuck little pieces of paper to naked humans and worked out the surface area of our skin as about 14 to 18 sq.ft. That would fetch about $3.50 US if human skin is valued the same as cowhide.
Throw in another dollar or so for the other elements, and broken down into raw materials, our bodies are worth less than five bucks.
At the other extreme, human tissues can be sold, if one turns a blind eye to laws and ethics, for a lot more. Human body parts are in demand for transplants, research and biotechnology processes. Chicago-based law professor Lori Andrews, in her book Body Bazaar: the Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age, claims the body tissue trade is a $17-billion US global business.
An article in Wired Magazine worked out that you might fetch a total of $45 million US as a tissue source, assuming you ultimately make the supreme sacrifice. That's provided you're female and sell 32 of your eggs for a total of $224,000 US.
A male would have the intriguing task of making 20 sperm donations a month for 20 years to keep pace.
Even long after death, your body can be worth money to someone. Lots of money. That's why German-born impresario Dr. Gunther von Hagens would like you to sign it over to him, with a consent form stating that, "I agree that my body can be used for an anatomical work of art."
If you're interesting enough, you might wind up injected with plastic and on display in one of his exhibitions. Don't laugh. His current donor roster includes more than 6,000 public-spirited people (or posthumous fame-seekers) and about 30 are in Canada. But, von Hagens says, Canadians are a hardy bunch and none of them have expired yet.
Along with his wife, Dr. Angelina Whalley, he was in Vancouver recently to promote the opening of his latest traveling show, Body Worlds 3. Along with its predecessors, it's arguably the most successful exhibition in the world.
Viewers see almost 200 authentic human specimens, including entire bodies, artistically dissected and posted in activities ranging from dancing to skateboarding to playing soccer. There's also a screened-off section on fetal development for those who might be squeamish about such things.
When asked about the business side of his enterprise, von Hagens reminded me that he's a scientist and an educator, not a businessman and that he uses the profits for his research in this admittedly amazing form of human taxidermy.
He also directed me to a recent article in Forbes Magazine that claims Body Worlds netted $2 million on $20 million in ticket and merchandise sales in 2004 (for such delicacies as body-parts key chains and T-shirts.) It concludes that since 1999, Body Worlds has shown a net profit of $40 million US, which von Hagens "plows back into his private research center, the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, as well as into running two plastination factories in Dalian, China, and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where preparing a single corpse requires 1,500 hours of skilled labour at a cost of $50,000."
Science World at Telus World of Science is hosting the Vancouver exhibition, which runs until Jan. 14. President and CEO Bryan Tisdall says that the show is "precisely on mission for Science World," because of its educational value. He also notes that it can encourage people toward healthier lifestyles. At previous shows, people have been known to lay down their last pack of cigarettes after seeing the blackened lung of a smoker.
A former lecturer at Heidelberg University's institute of pathology and anatomy, von Hagens says he invented the plastination process in 1975 while looking at a specimen preserved in plastic. "I wondered why the plastic was poured and then cured around the specimens rather than pushed into the cells," he says. That approach "would stabilize the specimens from within and literally allow you to grasp it.”
After much trial and error and some admitted disasters, he got the process to work. Ever the showman, he even offered to perform plastination on Pope John Paul II.
Yet he is not without competitors. Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta has a strikingly similar show, Bodies: The Exhibition, currently running in several American cities. It's enjoyed sell-out crowds and just had its New York City run extended. That show has a huge disclaimer that they are "not affiliated with any other organizer of human anatomy exhibitions, including Gunther von Hagens."
This has not stopped the two from having some fascinating legal squabbles.
According to Whalley, who handles most of the business affairs for von Hagens, Premier Exhibitions actually launched the first missile over who got to have a show in Cleveland.
"It was actually not us suing them," says Whalley, "but they sued us, because they were claiming that we interfered in their market. So our lawyer suggested we should make a counterclaim of copyright infringement."
Yes, copyright infringement. Van Hagens argues that his preserved cadavers are indeed works of art, and deserving of copyright protection.
Well, not if they're just sitting there CSI-style, of course.
"The dissected body in a proper anatomical position is not an item which should be covered by copyright," he acknowledges.
"But when there is a unique dissection, which brings an esthetic shock to the people not only because of the beauty but also the entertainment value, then there should be copyright."
He points to The Skateboarder, a flayed corpse posed doing a handstand with his skateboard in the air. Anatomically complete, his private parts hang exposed and inverted. But van Hagens directs me to admire the figure's posterior.
"Never before in anatomical history, in 600 years, has the gluteal region been shown in such a lifelike position," he gushes with obvious pride and enthusiasm.
Whalley agrees, noting that "it is not only anatomical knowledge and skill but also to literally design it, to make it appealing. There is not only a great teaching value, but they also have a great expression on top of that. My personal feeling is yes, it is copyrightable."
Exploitation or education? Voyeurism or esthetics? Every viewer will have to form their own personal conclusion. That is, after paying $25 for the timed admission ticket.
So, from a business standpoint, the outcome really isn't in doubt.
Web Watch:
(Tom Keenan is a professor at the University of Calgary and an expert on technology and its social implications. He can be reached at keenan@businessedge.ca)
