Body Worlds promised education through wonder, but the story behind it reveals a tangle of science, profit, and unanswered questions about consent. This episode looks at Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the man who turned anatomy into art, and the moral fault lines that form when human bodies become a business.

A “formal donor program” was created in Germany by Institute of Plastination (IfP) where people voluntarily consent to have their bodies plastinated after death. The paperwork exists include a signed donor will, a medical questionnaire, and internal registration files… but none of it is publicly verifiable. The Institute claims more than 20,000 donors, yet no independent audit has ever confirmed that the bodies in exhibitions match those donors. The program provides an ethical framework on paper, but its transparency ends at the Institute’s door.