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A 27-year-old Salt Lake woman wants to become a part of "Body Worlds." She's the first Utahn to sign documents, donating her body to this most unusual exhibit of real human bodies.
Muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, organs, bones tendons and more; everything is intact and visible not as models, but as real human beings.
For Vanessa Bello of Salt Lake, seeing the "Body Worlds 3" exhibit at The Leonardo was an emotional experience, to say the least.
"This is the most amazing exhibit I think ever to embrace mankind," she said. "I had made up my mind the second I went through the exhibit. I made up my mind months before my paperwork arrived. I made up my mind months before my donation card arrived. … There was no question. It just made sense."
Bello is the first person in this state to donate a body to Body Worlds. There are no recruitment tables, no individuals encouraging people to donate. But if someone chooses to do so, application forms are available.
"I made the decision on my own, and I've ask my family to respect my decision. I think at first they were a little shocked, because the idea of us all being buried together was something they had just always planned on," Bello said.
Under the agreement, when Vanessa dies, her body will be embalmed and sent immediately to the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany. The process there will replace tissue, water and fat with a reactive polymer that soaks into every cell. It remains elastic while the bodies are posed, then cured and hardened for exhibit.
The application to donate your body is very specific. There's even a place on the form for your reason, your commitment for the donation. The donor even has some say in how the body is going to be exhibited.
"It's a big decision. It's an important decision, and they do really want to make sure they are well informed and they are making this decision with a lot of good information and of their own volition," explained Lisa Davis, with The Leonardo.
In expressing preference, Bello says she would like to have her body posed and combined in an exhibit with another donor. But a lot depends on the condition of the bodies at time of death. In some cases, they might go to a university for medical education instead of going on exhibit.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
