01 June,2010 04:33 PM IST | | Agencies
What do you want - a sliver of human head, a piece of smokers' lungs or a slice of human hand? All that and much more are now available through a mail order service set up in Germany.
The service has been started by controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who is the inventor of a system known as plastination in which fluids are removed from dead humans or animals and replaced with hardened silicon. This allows body parts to be preserved indefinitely.
The Guardian reported that the store has been opened in the German town of Guben, near the Polish border, on the same site as the factory where Von Hagens converts dead beings into plastinated objects.
Body part prices range from 1,500 euros for a sliver of human head to 15,000 euros for a section of the entire length of a human body. They are to be dispatched by post and can be sent around the world.
Preserved slivers of duck and cross-sections of giraffe neck and crocodile jaw are also available.
Von Hagens collects his specimens from donors who have to sign a contract allowing him to plastinate their bodies after their death.
