Coming soon: the invasion of the body watchers

Ioannis Miaoulis wasn't thrilled at first with the idea of bringing ``Body Worlds 2: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies" to the Museum of Science. The exhibition features rubbery cadavers sliced open to reveal their insides, not the sort of thing Miaoulis, a mechanical engineer with a low tolerance for blood and gore, was drawn to.

Then Miaoulis, director of the Museum of Science, took his wife and daughters to see the show at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia in late 2005 .

``We stayed for hours," he says. ``It was just fascinating."

Next Sunday, ``Body Worlds 2" arrives in Boston, fresh off a popular 4 1/2-month-long run at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, where it attracted 625,000 visitors -- the third most in the museum's 105-year history. The Museum of Science has similar expectations, projecting 400,000 visitors during the exhibition's five-month run. That would place ``Body Worlds 2" ahead of the museum's recent show ``Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination," which drew 338,000 visitors in six months. Since 1995, when the first ``Body Worlds" exhibition opened in Japan, about 18 million people in 25 cities have seen some version of it.

Along with the crowds, ``Body Worlds" brings with it the baggage of its creator, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, a spotlight-seeking German anatomist whose scientific innovations have spawned three separate traveling exhibitions and about a dozen knockoffs. He is a controversial figure, known for once conducting a public autopsy in a London art gallery and for angering many in Poland and Germany over plans to build a factory to expand his operation, which includes the Institute for Plastination in Germany and a second factory in Dalian, China.

Wherever it has gone, ``Body Worlds" has sparked debate among ethicists, religious leaders, and the public over whether it's right to have dead bodies sliced and diced for display at a museum. And critics have been concerned about accusations -- denied by von Hagens and never proved -- that some of his specimens were executed Chinese and Russian prisoners.

Interest has also been sparked outside the world of science. Aviva Briefel, an associate English professor at Bowdoin College whose specialty is horror and Victorian culture, likens von Hagens to a modern-day P.T. Barnum. She's planning to come see the exhibit.

``There is something of the old-fashioned freak show to it," says Briefel. ``It reminds me of how people, in the 19th century or early 20th century, would travel around with their three-headed rat."

Von Hagens knows that his exhibition is controversial, but he says that's because people are not comfortable confronting death.

In an interview in Denver earlier this summer, he said that the exhibition's mission is to ``democratize anatomy." Now 61, he said he would like to get off the ``Body Worlds" public-relations circuit. He has been working on selling specimens to universities for anatomy classes -- a full body costs about $60,000 to produce -- and he'd like to expand that side of the institute. The factory planned for Germany would be used exclusively to produce sliced, translucent cross-sections used by doctors to compare patient scans with real-life examples.

``Excitement for me is being in the laboratory," von Hagens said. ``I will really try my best to become invisible for the media in the future, to have more time for my work again. I'm the plastinator. This should be enough."

Visitors to ``Body Worlds 2" will encounter more than 200 human specimens, including 25 full-size ``plastinates," as von Hagens calls his figures. They have been stabilized by a process he created in 1977 that replaces all the water in a body with plastic. To display the bodies, skin has been peeled back, and von Hagens and his staff have dissected the figures, revealing muscles and organs. Some of the rubbery bodies, which do not smell, have been placed in various athletic poses -- that of a skier, ballet dancer, baseball player, soccer player, skateboarder. Other bodies are cut up to show individual organs or thin slices of tissue. A prenatal section contains preserved placentas and fetuses. There is also a woman who died while five months pregnant. The fetus is visible through an opening in the uterus.

In deciding whether to show ``Body Worlds 2," the Museum of Science relied largely on research done by other institutions that have hosted the exhibit. For example, the California Science Center reviewed von Hagens's records to make sure his body donors had given consent to be plastinated.

The Museum of Science did not conduct its own investigation of von Hagens, viewing the work done by other institutions as sufficient, Miaoulis says. And though the museum is highlighting, on its website and in materials connected with ``Body Worlds 2," its standard guideline that children under the age of 12 be accompanied by an adult, Miaoulis isn't concerned about children viewing it.

``I think every biology class, particularly middle school and high school, should plan a trip," he says.

In preparation for ``Body Worlds 2," the museum did want to prepare the community, Miaoulis says, so he sent out a letter to about 60 clergy members, educators, physicians, community leaders, and medical ethicists announcing the exhibition. In the letter, no mention is made of the criticism or accusations against von Hagens. In fact, the anatomist's name isn't mentioned.

``We are thrilled at the educational opportunity this exhibition will offer," wrote Miaoulis. ``This timely and important exhibition explores human and comparative biology, anatomy, health science, and physiology."

The museum, which declined several requests to provide a complete list of the people contacted, said the response to the mailing was overwhelmingly positive.

But that isn't how everyone feels.

Aaron Goldberg, a pharmacist from Sharon and a member of the museum, is one of four people who, a museum spokeswoman said, have written or called to complain about the exhibit. Goldberg said that he saw ``Body Worlds 2" last year in Cleveland at the Great Lakes Science Center while attending a family event.

``My contention is the exhibit as a whole is offensive because of the treatment of the human body," says Goldberg. ``It does not treat the human body with proper respect that we all deserve."

Goldberg protested outside the Museum of Science earlier this month. He plans to return.

``I realize I'm facing a steamroller," he says. ``This is about big money. This is a well-oiled machine. The museum has a lot to gain. It'll probably be one of the biggest exhibitions the museum has had."

That's likely, considering the enthusiastic response to the exhibition in Denver. Joe and Sherry Fandrich, a Colorado couple who drove more than four hours to see the exhibit in Denver, waited in line one morning earlier this summer for the show to open.

Fandrich, a geologist, didn't hesitate when told that von Hagens is always looking for more body donors. Forms were available inside the Denver museum, as they will be inside the Museum of Science.

``I'd do it for one more laugh," said Fandrich. ``It beats the heck out of paying $6,500 to somebody to stick me in the ground."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.

(Correction: Because of a reporting error, the surname of Aaron Ginsburg, who is protesting the ``Body Worlds 2" exhibit at the Museum of Science, was incorrect in a story in the July 23 Arts & Entertainment section.)