Have You Ever Looked at the Human Body From This Close Up?
BY NURSEDA DEMİR (POLS/II)
I just went to the "Body Worlds" exhibition for the second time. (It's currently on display at Kentpark AVM.) My reaction after viewing it was, "Wow!" It's probably the most unusual and unexpected exhibition I've ever seen.
First of all: it consists of a lot of bodies that belonged to people who declared before their deaths that they wanted their remains to be used to advance medicine and education. In other words, they donated their bodies to serve humanity.
However, there is no information in Body Worlds about the donors' identity. I guess the organizers want to be respectful to donors and their families. After all, no one would want to see their friend's, child's or other loved one's name on a cadaver or organ in this kind of exhibition.
From my point of view, what the donors did was just incredible and unselfish. I mean, I'm not talking about donating one organ -- each of these individuals donated their whole body! For some people and/or their family members, even donating only one organ after death is a big deal. But the donors we're talking about here were not selfish: they wanted to do something for others even after their deaths.
The theme of the Body Worlds exhibition being shown in Ankara is "the life cycle." This means that you can see every process of human life, from the development of the fetus in the womb to senility. Anatomist Gunther von Hagens and his wife, designer and curator Anjelina Whalley, who are the creators of Body Worlds, have said that more than 35 million people from around the world have visited the traveling exhibition since 1995. I think that this number shows us its success.
Plus, the most interesting thing is that people who visit the exhibition are more likely than others to change their lifestyles. According to Dr. Whalley, 9 percent of visitors consume fewer cigarettes than before or even stop smoking; 33 percent change their eating habits to include more healthy foods in their diets; and 25 percent start going to the gym. By viewing Body Worlds, you can come face-to-face with your own body -- your muscles, your organs, your blood vessels -- and realize what the human body is capable of. From that moment on, you won't see your body as something ordinary, but as a glorious structure or machine.
To be honest, after I visited the exhibition, I too changed my eating habits, because it's very hard to keep eating fast food after seeing those bodies and organs, some of which are not healthy, right in front of you. I mean, you can see lungs that were damaged because of smoke or hearts ruined by bad eating habits and inactive lifestyles. Those are just a couple of examples -- I promise you can see more.
Anjelina Whalley says that "the destiny of our bodies is in our own hands. If we care very much, we can benefit from knowing that." Well, most of us don't care about our bodies very much, and maybe many of us (including me) sometimes mistreat them. If our organs could talk, God knows what they would say and how much they would complain about us. But the reality is that the speed of life is forcing us to act the way we do. Most of time we work so hard we don't have the energy to pay attention to our families or even our own bodies. And if I start talking about the living conditions and standards of people in Turkey, I'll never finish!
According to Dr. Whalley, 13,000 people have donated their bodies after visiting the exhibition. These donors are mostly from Germany and the US; so far, there are none from Turkey.
Anyway, the exhibition is still on display in Ankara because of the great interest people have shown. If you haven't gone yet, you shouldn't lose any time in doing so. This is a great opportunity to discover the secrets of the human body. I'm sure you'll be fascinated. Perhaps you'll even want to visit it a second time, like me. In any event, this may be something you won't able to see again in your entire life.
P.S.: I strongly recommend that you eat before going to the exhibition, because you probably won't be able to afterwards!