About 70 spectators spent up to $ 500 last month to witness a live dissection of the body of a 98-year-old man by a retired anatomist.
During a demonstration lasting several hours, Dr Colin Henderson removed the deceased’s organs, including his brain, explaining the different stages of this procedure which he performed throughout his career, according to local King 5 television.
On the channel’s footage, some spectators can be seen donning surgical gloves before handling the corpse.
“It was very educational,” a spectator, Monica, said on this television, judging that “everything was done with respect for the person who gave her body”.
According to King 5, the family of the deceased, David Saunders, however, did not know that the body bequeathed to science would be used for this kind of paid exhibition.
The event was organized by Death Science, which promotes itself as “an independent education platform”. Tickets for that day of October 17 in Portland announced “a forensic autopsy on a complete corpse.”
Was to follow an “anatomical dissection which will offer a unique look at what is under our skin, in our body and how it all works together”.
“Access to the corpse before, after and during breaks,” the program promised.
Death Science founder Jeremy Ciliberto said in a statement to AFP that the event aimed to “create an educational experience for people who want to learn more about human anatomy.”
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