An Anatomy of Our Selves

Journalists are often compared to vultures. last week, as we circled the corpse Professor Gunther von Hagens splayed open in London's first public autopsy since the practice was banned 170 years ago, it was easy to see why. Around 250 of us showed up at the improvised anatomy theater in a former brewery in London's East End, easily outnumbering the 200 or so non-journalists who paid $19 a seat for the performance. The dissection was part of von Hagens's "Body Worlds" exhibition, which has been traveling around Europe displaying plasticized cadavers in athletic and "artistic" poses since 1997. With police threatening...