Nexus - 0306 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE BODY "Although a close-up of the brain was shown, it was again out of The corpse on the autopsy table has been the subject of many _— focus. However, the appearance was not that of a human brain."” disputes as to whether it is adummy, a girl with a genetic disorder Prof. Mihatsch, University of Basle, Switzerland: "As for the or, indeed, an alien. Nearly all special effects (FX) experts con- organs removed, they could not be tallied with any human cluded that it is certainly possible to fake footage of a realistic- | organs."” looking autopsy. There have been many concems about ‘snuff Prof. Cyril Wecht, Ex-President, American Academy of movies and the origin of the corpses used in them. South — Forensic Sciences, USA: "I can't place these structures in an America had been named as a possible origin, but reports from abdominal context... I find it difficult to bring in any connection there have indicated the use of very realistic dummies. However, with the human body as I know it. The structure that must be the no one has found any evidence of special effects being used in _ brain, if it were a human being, does not look like a brain...it does this autopsy film—although today, unquestionably, nearly every- _ not seem to be a human being."* thing can be faked with the latest state- : _ Dr Carsten Nygren, Oslo, of-the-art FX techniques.” Norway: "This is not a human On the other hand, pathologists and There Was nota single physician brain. It is...much too dark." physicians from all over the world who Prof. Pierluigi Baima Bollone, saw the film were pretty sure the body or pathologist who, after watching University of Turin, Italy: "When was not a dummy, but actually 2 | the full film, concluded it was a we !ook at the inner organs of the corpse—human or humanoid. body we find no single organ that in It is indisputable that some of the hoax or that the being on the table any way resembles any human characteristics of different genetic dis- | wasgq dummy. They all agreed the ff organ. The main organ, which orders can be found in the being on the could be the liver, has neither the autopsy table—mostly disorders such | COFPS€ WaS ofa living, biological shape nor the location of a human as Turner's syndrome or progeria, entity—human or not. liver. The face of the alleged combined with polydactylism (which extraterrestrial shows surprising is not a typical element of Turner's anatomical features: very big ocu- syndrome, although possible in combi- lar orbits, a very flat nasal pyramid, nation with it) and other anomalies. This prompted a German der- a mouth somehow wide open...nevertheless, the face is flat, there matologist, Dr T. Jansen of the Policlinic of the University of is no evidence of facial musculature which is present in human Munich, to publish a study in a medical journal, trying to prove _ beings and is responsible for the large variety of facial expres- that the body is that of a girl who died from a rare form of proge- _ sions of the human species... My overall impression is that we are ria." On the other hand, he forgot to explain why there could be —_ dealing with a creature that seems to belong to our species but is two girls with identical symptoms including polydactylism, when _so clearly different from us that it seems absurd to speculate about progeria is so rare that there are only 20 cases worldwide. _ the similarity."* Unfortunately, the only case of Turner's syndrome twins, although There was not a single physician or pathologist who, after obviously documented on film, was never published in the med- _—_ watching the full film, concluded it was a hoax or that the being ical literature. on the table was adummy. They all agreed the corpse was of a Indeed, Dr Jansen's ‘findings’ do not explain the extreme pre- _ living, biological entity—human or not. cautions taken when the autopsy was per- formed, i.e., why would the team have worn bio-hazard protection suits if the body had a genetic disorder, and why would the being have been fitted with black eye-lenses? Although Dr Jansen diagnosed a stroke (common for progeria patients) as the cause of death, this does not explain the damaged right leg, the bro- ken and swollen left leg, the cut-off right hand and a bruise al the left temple with a possible bullet wound. Should we assume that our creature broke its legs, cut its right hand and shot a bullet in its head before it died from a stroke? More than that, Jansen's explanation for the missing navel couldn't convince us, either. To quote Dr Jansen, "It's like if you put up an umbrella: the unevenness disappears." On the other hand, quite a number of pathologists concluded that the being was not human at all, since its inner organs were like nothing they had ever seen: Prof. Christopher Milroy, Home Office Pathologist, University of Sheffield, UK: tern aa eS NEXUS ¢ 63 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1996