Human Body Exhibits Reveal More Than Expected

Is it Art?... Science?... Entertainment?... Or Something Much More Sinister?

You may have seen the commercials...
"The Universe Within", "Body Worlds", "Bodies Revealed"...
The ads all look alike... (if you have a weak stomach, stop reading Here.)
Real Human Remains/Bodies... that have been embalmed, skinned, cured, trimmed, soaked in chemical baths... so that they are preserved... no decomposition, no smell...
They are then posed, in various activities, for all to see... for a price.
(Personally, I wouldn't want to see the exhibit, even if it were Free.)

I first heard of this modern Carnival of the Macabre a couple of years ago. "Body Worlds" had come and gone and a copycat competitor was currently spending ridiculous amounts of money in local TV advertising. I glanced up at the TV screen only once... my gut winced and so did I... and I made a point to avoid the images thereafter. I thought it grotesque... and not in a good way.
And I had a Question:
"WHERE DID THEY GET THE BODIES?"
I had an interest in the show... but not in a way that they can make money from.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one. California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma had some serious concerns about these exhibits, too.

Ma first encountered one of the Body Exhibits in San Francisco in 2005... When she realized that all of the bodies came from China, she immediately became concerned: "Chinese people are very superstitious about death. If someone dies in a house, they won't buy the house," she said. "They believe in full-body burials. They don't believe in organ donations, and some people don't even believe in giving blood. So, automatically, I thought that something was wrong with the show," said Ma.

Before too long, I heard that this second-rate exhibit was involuntarily closed down... after patrons complained of (and a local news crew filmed) some of the bodies leaking an unidentified substance.

Oops! Seems they skipped a few of the important steps in the Plastination Process. Tsk... Tsk... Tsk...

About a month ago, one of these Human Remains Reviews passed through town again. Same skinned bodies, same barrage of creepy commercials... and the same Question, still unanswered...
On the bright side, at least these poor folks weren't dripping.
Well... it was unanswered until Brian Ross investigated the hugely profitable practice of peeling and posing people for ABC's 20/20...
All I can say is... Add them to the growing list of questionable Chinese exports...
That... and... "Ewww!"

(From Our Body: The Universe Within's Website:) Where do these specimens come from?
"All of the anatomical specimens contained in Our Body: The Universe Within originate from China and have been provided for the exhibit consistent with the laws of China. The anatomical specimens are not owned by the exhibitors, but are provided by a Chinese foundation to promote educational and medical research of the human body. While we do not have the specific identity of each anatomical specimen, they have been donated through medical schools and other research facilities in China to promote education, science and medical research of the human body."

"...consistent with the laws of China..."
REALLY?
That's interesting, cause it's been illegal in China to export human bodies or body parts since 2006.

Then again...
China executes more prisoners than any other country...
That said, perhaps they've just embraced Capitalism...
Why bother disposing of all of those remains...
When you can SELL THEM?!...

Eww.
Peace.
L.

From: //abcnews.go.com

Human Bodies on Display: Where Do They Come From?

Body Exhibit Inventor Says He's Stopped Using Bodies From China Because Some of Them May Be Those of Executed Prisoners

The German doctor who invented the process that led to hundreds of human bodies being put on display around the world, says he has stopped using bodies from China because some of them may be those of executed Chinese prisoners.

The body shows, which have drawn millions of paying customers in more than 30 cities, show human bodies that have been preserved with a liquid plastic process. The bodies are shown skinned and trimmed, in a variety of poses, including throwing a football, playing poker or at a chess board.

In an interview to be aired Friday on the ABC News program "20/20," Dr. Gunther von Hagens also says an underground black market is providing bodies to Chinese companies that export them to the U.S. and Europe, despite a 2006 Chinese law prohibiting the export of human bodies for commercial purposes.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was investigating the allegations.

Von Hagens says he had to cremate several bodies he received in China after detecting injuries that led him to suspect they had been executed prisoners. He says those bodies were given to him by a medical school in China to plastinate for teaching models. He said he only used Chinese bodies, all of which he received from the Chinese university, for teaching models, but has never put Chinese bodies on public display.

"There is now no way for me any more to work with specimens in China," said von Hagens, who says his company in China now only deals with animal specimens.

The German doctor, labeled Dr. Death by some European newspapers, said, "I am concerned that public exhibitions are being hijacked by corporate interests."

Von Hagens says the bodies he uses in shows currently running in Baltimore, Milwaukee and elsewhere are from European donors who voluntarily consented prior to their deaths to have their bodies put on display.

Von Hagens provided "20/20" with documents of donors to back up his claim.

"The donors know exactly what is the scope of what we are doing," he said in the interview, conducted at his body factory in the German town of Guben, on the Polish border.

Von Hagens says he invented the "plastination" process initially, in 1975, to prepare body specimens for medical schools.

In 1995, he opened the first public display in Tokyo and has since made millions of dollars with shows around the world that have provoked considerable controversy.

"You're going to be entertained by looking at dead bodies, by looking at cadavers that have been put in the most atrocious poses for our entertainment," said Rabbi Louis Feldstein of Atlanta.

Feldstein says it violates a standard of "respect for the life that was lived."

Earlier this month, the California Assembly passed and sent to the Senate, legislation that would require body shows to have proof that each body had been donated with "informed consent."

"As a person of Chinese descent, I just don't believe any family would consent to have their kin shown this way," said the bill's author, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma.

"The skin is ripped off; body parts are exposed so that someone else could be making millions of dollars looking at them," she said.

Dr. von Hagens says he strongly supports the California legislation and says it should be the standard worldwide.

"Especially as a German, with [our country's] Nazi past, I have to refrain to avoid the tiniest, little strand of any doubt that I am guilty of unethical conduct," he said.