The Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch (pictured) branded Body Worlds 4 a "little shop of horrors" and said he had "grave concerns for the spiritual welfare" of children visiting the show.
He criticised the recruiting style used to get people to donate their bodies to the exhibition as "a modern twist on body snatching".
The show is set to open at the Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) on February 22 and will feature 200 body parts and 20 corpses in a range of athletic poses.
It is being advertised on the MoSI website as "ideal for all ages" and "ideal for families", with children under five allowed in for free.
Body Worlds 4 is the latest project by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who uses a process called "plastination" to preserve and display human corpses.
His previous shows have attracted 25m visitor worldwide - more than any other touring exhibition. Dr von Hagens has defended them as a unique educational opportunity to see how the body works.
MoSI, which will become the first publicly-funded museum in Britain to host a so-called "corpse show", has defended Body Worlds 4 as "an unprecedented encounter with the human body in its post mortal state". The exhibition is expected to raise in excess of £8m.
But the Bishop's criticisms, expressed in a letter to MoSI's acting director Tony Hill, are likely to reignite the controversy surrounding Dr von Hagens' work.
The letter calls for under-18s to be banned from the show and for MoSI staff to be allowed to opt out of working in the exhibition area if they wish.
The Bishop draws attention to an apparent "loophole" in the law which means only corpses acquired after September 1, 2006, require proof of the dead person's consent in order to be displayed.
Discourage
And he warns that the show might discourage people from carrying organ donor cards.
"There is evidence that corpse shows undermine public confidence," he says. "In Scotland the shows are banned and in May 2007 the chief medical officer highlighted Dr von Hagens' previous public anatomy work as having an effect on whole body donations."
The Bishop says exhibitions like Body Worlds "have origins in the now long-banned Victorian freak shows".
He raises concerns that Dr von Hagens' website contains links allowing visitors to sign up to having their bodies plastinated and displayed after their death.
"This is indeed a modern twist on body-snatching," he writes.
In a damning passage, the Bishop continues: "I have great concern for the spiritual welfare of two groups of people. I see from your website that you are marketing Body Worlds 4 to families with an offer that those under five get in free...
"Is this little shop of horrors that has entered Manchester really a family day out? I do hope the science museum will at least put a warning on its website for parents to protect the young, review the under-five 'free entry' marketing policy and, just like a horror at the cinema, raise the entry age to 18.
"I also have concern for museum staff... Do you have a mechanism for giving staff an opt-out from working in the exhibition area? This might be on the grounds of religious faith, or because they have suffered bereavement, or because they believe working with such exhibits for the next four months may damage them psychologically."
Corpses
A spokewoman for Dr von Hagens' Institute of Plastination said all the corpses in the exhibition were from a unique body donation programme established in Germany in 1982.
"The Institute for Plastination's body donation programme and protocols have been vetted by bio-ethicists, museum lawyers, and ad hoc ethics committees assembled numerous venerable museums in the United States," she said. "All death certificates and donor consent forms of plastinates on display have been matched and verified.
"In October 2007, the Journal of Medical Humanities interviewed bio-ethicist Dr. Hans Martin Sass of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington DC, who had travelled to Heidelberg to examine the body donor files on behalf of American museums.
"Dr Saas confirmed his earlier findings about donor consent and stated to the premier journal for medical researchers that he was satisfied with the Institute for Plastination's body donation programme.
"The Institute for Plastination operates with complete transparency and openly provides comprehensive information about our body donation process and programme to all participating museums.
Specimens
"With the exception of a small number of specimens in the Body Worlds exhibitions(specifically organs, body parts, and foetuses) that were acquired from established morphological institutes such as anatomy and pathology programmes, and historical anatomical collections, all of the specimens in Body Worlds are donated bodies, willed by donors, for the express purpose of serving Body Worlds' mission to educate the public about health and anatomy.
"While other exhibits have revealed that they use unclaimed and found bodies originating from China, Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds has never obtained nor sought to obtain bodies from China or anywhere else for its exhibitions. Indeed, there are no Chinese plastinated bodies in Dr. von Hagens' exhibitions.
Currently, the Institute for Plastination has a donor roster of 8,688 individuals. The already deceased on the IFP's donor roster number more than 546.
"All IFP documents relating to donated bodies have been scrutinized and approved by several museum ethics committees including one formed by the California Science Center in Los Angeles and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where Body Worlds exhibitions took place in 2005."
The MoSI refused to comment.
When the exhibition was held in London it was branded "tasteless and insensitive" by parents of dead children whose organs were retained without consent at Alder Hey hospital.
One visitor was so incensed that he took a hammer to one of the exhibits - a man holding his own liver.
Click here for more information on the exhibition and to see a gallery of exhibits.
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Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
Pete (05/02/2008 at 07:53)
Ms D, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 08:46)
The Big Lebowski (05/02/2008 at 09:42)
Ms D, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 10:11)
Munkey Boy, Audenshaw, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 10:19)
No-one is being forced to go to this exhibition, but it is not the church place to demand this is censored to under-18s. It is for parents to decide - not everyone should be forced to live by the church's 'moral' code.
Jo (05/02/2008 at 10:45)
It was religious attitudes like this this that prevented doctors from dissecting human corpses for hundreds of years, and set back medical research considerably in the process... it seems that nothing has changed.
The Church has no business interfering in a scientific exhibition. Perhaps the Bishop is just concerned that the better educated we are about the body, the less interested we'll be in the 'soul'... knowledge is, after all, power.
He can keep his backward views, thanks. I'm more concerned with scientific truths than biblical brainwashing.
David Johnson (05/02/2008 at 11:37)
mylifeinthemafia (05/02/2008 at 11:44)
The Bobelesque (05/02/2008 at 11:57)
The bishop should stick to converting folk to the way of the cross. Hagendas should stick to making ice cream - but make sure he washes his hands!
Connor Fitzgerald (05/02/2008 at 12:13)
I still can’t get my head around the 18 year old 'thing' these days.
If you can get married, have children etc at 16, then you should be adult enough to make your own mind up about what you want to see.
Again, you can have a violent war film that shows death and destruction in very vivid details, yet put a pair of boobs on TV and the religious amongst us go wild!
Make love not war, I was only too happy when my 15 year old was caught with a 'naughty' magazine in his room and not a copy of 'Soldier Kill Death Weekly' which I might add, these publications have no age limit on!
It’s a body, get over it, we have one!
Pippa, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 12:19)
cazeaux (05/02/2008 at 13:03)
Gary SK13 (05/02/2008 at 13:03)
Pippa, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 14:16)
Blue Ape With A Drum (05/02/2008 at 14:39)
Isn't the real problem that the church has lost it's authoritarian control over the masses?Maybe the bishop should look at the church's own charge sheet,before lecturing on a piece of harmless art.
DangerMouse (05/02/2008 at 14:50)
I for one am looking forward to the exhibit...both from a scientific and biological view, but also from a slight morbid curiosity...aren't we all interested in seeing what years of smoking and drinking does to some of our bodies??
Perhaps the bishop should censo scenes regarding the Crucification of Christ...are they no barbaric and brutal??
The only concern i have for the Museum is if any "would be protestors" try to spoil the exhibit by intimidating members of staff!..lets all try and be a bit more mature about this eh?!!
Tecnos Winter, Bolton (05/02/2008 at 15:00)
"Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)
Chris, Oldham (05/02/2008 at 15:13)
Also, I don't hear the Museum pontificating about the way the cathedral is run. What right does Nige have to stick his oar in at the Museum?
The Bobelesque (05/02/2008 at 16:16)
jodie rowbie (05/02/2008 at 16:30)
Hopefully the show will inspire a whole new generation of doctors, nurses, biomedical scientists and research into illnesses.
My father recently passed from a rare illness and we donated tissues for its research - is this body snatching too Bishop?? Lets hope you never get ill!!
Neil M (05/02/2008 at 17:54)
Lenin, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 18:25)
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Bodyworlds exhibition, no one can question the potential for scientific and education benefit to our society, anything that gives ordinary people an insight into the workings of their whole body and how their lifestyle affects it, cannot be an evil thing.
Having had a look at the Museum's website, nowhere can I see them advertising bodyworlds specifically to children - and the sensationalist drivel spouted by the Bishop is nothing but a transparent attempt to scare audiences away. After all, it's not in the churches interest for kids to know the science behind life and death, as this will inevitably lead them to question the whole purpose of religion and the associated fire and brimstone and fairy tales.
MEDICAL WOMAN (05/02/2008 at 18:37)
K1ttycat (05/02/2008 at 19:11)
smittyh, Blackley, Manchester (05/02/2008 at 19:15)
I have seen this exhibition when it was in London and it is absolutely breathtaking. It is beautiful, stunning, art. It isn't ghoulish, it isn't a freak show and it certainly isn't a "body snatch" show - all of those whose bodies are used are donated by the person before they die. I would no problems taking my six-year-old nephew to see it.
And the vast majority of people who have seen it that I know are equally impressed - where are their comments in this story? Whilst the parents of the Alder Hey children should be listened to and respected, there are a lot of other people who hold a different view.
This exhibition has been all over the world, where it has been feted for the amazing show it is. Stories like this make Manchester look like a parochial backwater.
And I'd also like to reinforce the irony of a bishop making these comments when his religion is centred on a dead man hanging from a piece of wood and a book filled with murder, bloodshed and rape.