Mad scientist 'Dr Death' dies and has extraordinary final request for own body granted

German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, dubbed 'Doctor Death', has passed away, and his family have confirmed they intend to grant his unusual final request.

The 81-year-old generated both fascination and revulsion around the globe with his Body Worlds exhibits of preserved human corpses.

Von Hagens’ family and the Institute for Plastination, which he founded, said he died on Friday (24 July).

In 2010, von Hagens had announced that he was living with Parkinson’s disease.

Von Hagens trod a fine line between science, entertainment and commerce with his touring exhibits, as well as headline-grabbing actions such as a public post-mortem examination.

But at the heart of his work was the so-called 'plastination process', the act of replacing body fluids with liquid plastic that then hardens.

That technique, which he started developing in the 1970s, prevented decay, left tissues intact and allowed him to display preserved corpses and their inner organs.

The exhibitions drew a lot of attention (Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images)

And now 'Dr Death' himself will go through the process and have his body made available for plastination. His family have said they intend to carry out his wish.

It came after von Hagens died a day after being admitted to a clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, with a brain haemorrhage.

"It was Gunther von Hagens' own wish to make his body available for plastination after his death," the statement read. "His family will respect and carry out this wish."

The bizarre work of Dr von Hagens

Von Hagens said he was helping viewers understand how their bodies work. The anatomist is 'forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead', von Hagens said of his work.

“I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and nothing is so near as our body is to us,” he said.

The shows used the corpses of people who agreed to donate their bodies for plastination. Critics had argued that von Hagens bordered on sensationalism with his works, which included a corpse riding a plastinated horse, and a pregnant woman with an eight-month-old foetus inside.

The scientist has now had his own wish granted (Getty Images)

Von Hagens 'plays with the corpses like a child plays with dolls', the Rev Ernst Pulsfort, spiritual rector of Berlin’s Catholic Academy, said when the show first opened in the German capital in 2001.

During a Body Worlds show in London in 2002, the anatomist conducted Britain’s first public post-mortem examination in 170 years before a sellout crowd of hundreds, defying government warnings that it might be illegal. Von Hagens declared it a 'huge success'.

The British Medical Association’s head of ethics, Dr Michael Wilkes, said it was 'degrading and disrespectful'.

The Body Worlds exhibits were shown in several American cities after making their US debut in Los Angeles in 2004.

Von Hagens’ Plastinarium, where bodies are prepared, opened in the eastern German town of Guben in 2006.