Bodies dipped in plastic, hundreds of human organs coming to Grand Rapids

A popular traveling exhibit that uses real human bodies dipped in plastic to teach anatomy and life science is returning to Michigan this fall.

The "Bodies Revealed" exhibit, which opens at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on Nov. 16, features preserved "real, whole and partial body specimens." Tickets are expected to go on sale in the fall. 

It will be the first time the exhibit has returned to Grand Rapids in nearly a decade.

Kate Kocienski, the vice president of marketing and public relations at the museum, told the Free Press that "Bodies Revealed" is on tour by a company called Premier Exhibitions, Inc and the bodies have been maintained via a "polymer preservation process."

The museum's page for the exhibit said that more than a dozen full human bodies and hundreds of organs will be "respectfully displayed to tell the story of the miraculous systems at work within each of us."

"Bodies Revealed allows people to learn about their own bodies and, ultimately, teach how to take better care of one’s own health and make positive lifestyle choices," the site said.

The museum said people of all ages are welcome to observe the skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, respiratory, reproductive and circulatory systems, and added that many of the specimens will be in "vivid athletic poses" that offer an understanding of "everyday motions and activities."

Other body specimens on-site will illustrate that damage that can be caused by habits, like overeating, smoking and lacking exercise, the site said.  

In the past, similar displays have generated controversy, as reported by news outlets from around the world — including, the Irish Times, BBC, The New York Times, NPR and more — largely because of questions about how these individuals died and whether or not the bodies were used with consent. 

The bodies that will be on display at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in the fall were donated with consent for the remains to be used for medical research, including public education, Kocienski said. She added that the bodies have come from universities in China, primarily from Nanjing Medical University.

This is also not the first time exhibitions like this have come to Michigan museums to drum up interest in science, anatomy and health. 

According to the Huffington Post, a traveling exhibit that also featured preserved human bodies, called "Bodies Human," came to the Michigan Science Center in 2012. It was one of the special exhibits promoted as marking the re-opening of the science center, which the Huffington Post reported, was formerly known as the Detroit Science Center and closed in 2011 because of financial issues. 

For more information about "Bodies Revealed," coming to Grand Rapids, go to:  https://www.grpm.org/bodies/

Contact Aleanna Siacon: ASiacon@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon.