Copulating cadavers? Controversial 'Body Worlds' exhibit stuns Berlin

Gunther von Hagens' "Body Worlds" exhibition "The Cycle of Life," showing 200 human bodies at life stages from conception to old age, including embryos and fetuses, has drawn sharp criticism in Berlin. In one exhibit, a male body is lying on his back with a woman straddling him, her back toward his head. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on here.

Donors sign up to have their dead bodies dissected and displayed in Von Hagens' traveling human-body exhibitions. Wonder if you can specify, "No X-rated poses"?

When asked about the coupling of sex and death, Von Hagens told Germany's Bild magazine that "death and sex are both taboo topics. I'm bringing them together. Death belongs to life." He added that "without sex, no life would exist."

He's got a point. What do you think?

Perhaps what he's doing is just a modern version of ancient memento mori (remembrance of death) created in countless cultures and contained in the Paris catacombs and the Capuchin crypt in Rome.

Check out this video of the bizarre and grotesque life work of the monks displayed in a small chapel in Rome.

Now these guys clearly had too much time on their hands....

Photo credits: Body Worlds