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The Corpse Supplier - relationships between BODYWORLDS,
Sui Hong Jin, and BODIES...the Exhibition
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link |
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"[von
Hagens] admitted last week that some bodies might have come from executed Chinese prisoners. "I have told
my Chinese employees they cannot accept bodies that have been executed," he said.
Der Spiegel printed what appeared to be damning e-mail correspondence
with his manager in Dalian, Dr Sui Hongjin, dating from December 2001. At the time, the
communist authorities had ordered the police to clamp down on criminals. Dr Sui is quoted as boasting that he had obtained
"fresh specimens" - the bodies of a young man and young woman who had died that morning. He added that both corpses had had
their stomachs slit open and their intestines removed, and they had bullet holes in their heads."
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1/23/04 The Guardian - Von Hagens forced to return controversial corpses to China
1/25/04 Telegraph - Body Worlds impresario 'used corpses of executed prisoners for exhibition'
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Gunther von Hagens responds to reports of executed prisoners among the plastinates.
"I absolutely prohibit and do not accept death penalty bodies,'' von Hagens, a tall, thin man in a fedora,
said this week during a rare tour of his Dalian facility.
But, he added, ``Many things can happen. ... I cannot exclude that [possibility].''
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2/5/04 Taipei Times - Dr Frankenstein alive and well
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Gunther von Hagens responds to allegations that his father was a member of the Nazi's SS in Poland
during WWII. These allegations were published as his father attempted to purchase a factory in Poland to be
used as a plastination plant.
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3/2/05 Times online - Poles reject Dr Death's display over Nazi links
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Lucia Tanassi, Professor of Medical Ethics and Anthropology, discusses Gunther von Hagens' (BodyWorlds)
history of obtaining unclaimed corpses for plastination purposes. She then goes on to discuss the incompleteness
of the sole independent ethics review of BodyWorlds - that of the California Science Center - prior to the BodyWorlds'
debut in the U.S.
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July 06, 2006 Recording of Public Lecture - "Plasti-Nation: How America Was Won" given by Lucia Tanassi
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"BODIES... The Exhibition has a fascinating story. Its bodies are plastinated
by a Dr. Sui Hongjin, once a protege of Dr. von Hagens."
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8/10/06 NPR - Cadaver Exhibits are Part Science Part Sideshow (part 1 of report)and Reporter's Notebook:
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The Dehumanization of Human Beings
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link |
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"People come with a small amount of apprehension, because they know they are going to be seeing real bodies,"
said Dr. Roy Glover, a retired University of Michigan medical professor who acts as the exhibit's medical adviser and spokesman.
"But they become so engaged in learning, they forget what they're looking at."
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8/20/06 The Seattle Times: Local News: All laid bare in "Bodies" exhibit
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"Yet if we are looking at the real thing, while in fact being desensitized by its lack of realness, this
poses an ethical and psychological problem. Glover insists that “Bodies” treats its cadavers with dignity and
respect. Is it possible to show respect, though, when you view a human body as a mere teaching object?"
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10/1/06 TheNewsTribune Tacoma WA Lively debate surrounds display of bodies |
Discussion of the dehumanization of human beings in BODYWORLDS.
"The draw of Body Worlds is not that we can learn how bodies look and function. We could do that with very
sophisticated artificial models; indeed, those models might in some ways even come closer to mimicking living bodies, with
still active respiratory, digestive, and cardiac systems. And isn’t the understanding of
processes and activities, rather than mere gawking at the endless ways in which parts can be sliced and diced, what scientific
knowledge of the human body is really about?"
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Winter 2007 The New Atlantis - Dead Body Porn
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"The primary purpose of the exhibit, Glover said, is educational, although some people may see artistic
merit. "The human body is exquisite in structure and function, and a lot of people see beauty in that. But we're in the business
to educate people," he said."
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4/6/07 Washington Post Body Language
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"But visitors to the "Bodies" exhibit might forget that they're looking at actual human
cadavers. The polymer preservation process that is used in their preparation makes them appear more like manikins
than something you'd see on the autopsy table on "CSI.""
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10/5/07 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - 'Bodies' exhibit to open Monday - By William Loeffler
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"None of this respect has been provided to the individuals now on display at the science center. We
have done the opposite of "paying our respects" to them: To serve our voyeuristic pursuits, masked as edification
or entertainment, we have allowed these bodies to have their skin flayed, their nervous systems dissected, their genitalia
exposed and a host of other indignities. We have not treated them as "persons" who should be afforded
the full dignity of the humanity that was once a part of them, but as "things" to be sliced and exhibited to serve our purposes.
We have not allowed them to "rest in peace," nor to have their bodily material returned to God."
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10/14/07 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Sunday Forum: BODIES - Don't go - By Rabbi Danny Schiff, community scholar at the Agency
for Jewish Learning in Pittsburgh
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The Exploitation of the Dead
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link |
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"So, what is this exhibit really teaching millions?
It teaches that, once he is deceased, there is nothing wrong with taking a person's body without his consent
(better if he is nameless and foreign), plastinating, skinning, butchering and posing him with a piece of sporting equipment,
to be viewed by people of all ages.
It teaches that there is nothing wrong with exploiting the dead in order to make a profit,
as long as it is in the name of science or education or art. It doesn't matter that a "specimen" might have
hoped that her remains would be treated with reverence and dignity instead of being positioned by a designer to best reveal
her internal organs to the world.
It teaches that it is incredibly easy to dehumanize others. Many exhibit visitors say that after a few minutes,
they become so fascinated by the subject matter that they forget they're looking at real people. But when we dehumanize the
dead, it becomes easier to dehumanize the living."
Elaine Catz was an education coordinator for the Carnegie Science Center for nearly 11 years until she resigned
June 14 to protest the museum's decision to host "Bodies ... the Exhibition"
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6/24/07 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Sunday Forum: Exhibition of Exploitation - By Elaine Catz, former Carnegie Science Center
employee
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"...the false claim that you cannot form a respectable opinion about
something unless you've experienced it for yourself. This argument
is, let me euphemize, utter malarkey....Reducing the argument to the absurd,
we don't have to participate in murder to decide it's wrong. So, with the "Bodies" exhibition, must a person buy a ticket
and see the show before deciding for herself whether it should be supported and seen? "
Is a change of context alone enough to turn exploitation and entertainment
into edification?"
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6/25/07 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Enough evidence to keep 'Bodies' at bay - By Ruth Ann Dailey
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"However, good ends never justify immoral means, and there is much about the Bodies exhibit that raises important
concerns about the dignity and respect that must be accorded human beings.
The bodies were obtained, “plastinated” and exhibited without the previous permission of the deceased
or family members. While the church has long supported the donation of bodies for scientific advancement, it is always understood
that morally and ethically such donations must be donated with valid and informed consent.
The cadavers come from China, a country with an atrocious record on human rights.
Though the exhibition’s organizers have stated otherwise, it is difficult to determine satisfactorily
whether the bodies are the result of human rights abuses.
Even if the cadavers were not victims of political repression, they would more than likely be from China’s
poor. The right to dignity in the treatment of a deceased body is not waived because of poverty."
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6/27/07 Diocese of Pittsburgh News Release
7/1/07 Pittsburgh Catholic - Upcoming exhibit of Bodies raises concerns - By Robert P. Lockwood
7/5/07 Diocese of Pittsburgh radio commentary
1/11/08 Catholic Online -Bodies exhibition using human corpses raises questions regarding human dignity by Robert Lockwood
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"Professor Anita Allen, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, argued spending money to "gawk" at human
remains should raise serious concerns. She's baffled by what she sees as a lack of outrage.
"I think a lot of people would be horrified if they learned they would become a public spectacle because they
lost contact with people who could identify or claim them after they died," Allen said. "And there's
a third-world exploitation side to this. I don't think it's incidental that these people are Chinese. How
would people feel if each location's show used bodies from their own region?""
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9/07/07 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Science Center's 'Bodies' exhibit controversial - By Michael Cronin
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"Not all people are going to go see this attraction for educational purposes.
Some are going to come to view the attraction simply because of the morbid fact that this "exhibit" is actual dead human beings...Cadavers used to teach budding young doctors lifesaving techniques is one thing, but to pose a deceased person in a
soccer pose or swinging a tennis racquet is quite another."
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9/12/07 Your North Hills - One must question the notion of cadavers on display
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"Ultimately, though, it's hard to look past the fact that these bodies were used without
consent, a human-rights violation that no living person would wish for. We trust that in the future, Premier
and organizations like it will take the necessary precautions to ensure that cadavers are retrieved ethically.
Because, while we value science and education, nothing supercedes basic human rights."
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9/13/07 Pitt News EDITORIAL - "Bodies" exhibit draws ethical uncertainties
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"Educational or not, the exhibition is not medical research, and Premier is not a scientific organization.
"Bodies: The Exhibition" is a shameless exposure of the dead for profit."
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9/20/07 The Duquesne Duke - A Premier Profit - By Jess Eagle
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"Real dead bodies tend to arouse our morbid, ghoulish side, which, unfortunately has little to do
with science and everything with making a buck. "
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10/3/07 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The anatomy of controversy and cold-hard cash - By Mike Seate
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"...Another enthusiast is David Hillenbrand, president and CEO of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh (which
includes the Science Center). Hillenbrand's op-ed in the Sept. 9 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette enshrined Bodies
in the same "controversial and compelling" category as Andy Warhol Museum exhibits on lynching and Nazi eugenics. The comparison seems oblivious to the distinction between exploring an injustice and possibly perpetrating
one.
We know virtually nothing about these people -- these "specimens." China, where Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions
gets its corpses, has long been known for jailing, torturing and executing dissidents; Chinese officials have acknowledged
illegal trafficking in human organs and dead bodies. The country also leads the world in the small but lucrative industry
of body plastination, supplying shows by Premier and other exhibitors.
China's human-rights record is terrifying. But let's accept Glover's promise that "[e]very possible step has
been taken to assure that the bodies were obtained legally." The trouble is, the morality of Bodies isn't just about
manner of death or means of acquisition. One day, someone in China dropped dead: No one knew, or cared, to claim his body,
so Premier got it. And that's the best-case scenario: mummification for display without consent. The
exhibit seems less about the risks of smoking than about the perils of being poor in China."
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10/11/07 Pittsburgh City Paper - The Carnegie Science Center unveils Bodies ... The Exhibition ... but what are you seeing?
- By Bill O'Driscoll
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Of course, there is a difference between medical students using an unclaimed cadaver for research purposes and
a for-profit company selling tickets to see them.
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10/17/07 The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh - 'Bodies' stirs consternation from area rabbis - By Susan Jacobs
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The Kilgour-Matas Reports - organ harvesting from live Falun Gong prisoners in China
- The Chinese government is prone to arrest and execute its citizens. More than 60 offenses, including
some that are solely political or economic, are punishable by execution. In the past few years, 80 percent of the world's
government-ordered executions have taken place in China.
- Organ transplantation is a huge industry in China,
and people from around the world travel there to purchase organs and undergo surgery. But China has no voluntary organ donation
system. Tens of thousands of transplanted organs have come from unidentified sources.
- At a surgical conference held Nov. 14, 2006, the Chinese deputy health minister
publicly acknowledged that his country has a thriving illegal organ trade. He also said
that most organs transplanted in China are taken from executed prisoners. To facilitate this process, the government has changed
its preferred method of execution. Prisoners are put to death by lethal injection while on route to a hospital in a "mobile
execution van." Once there, their organs are harvested.
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link |
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Amnesty International - Falun Gong Persecution Fact Sheet - This document is no longer available on the AI website.
It was previously located at: http://www.amnesty.org.nz/web/pages/home.nsf/dd5cab6801f1723585256474005327c8/83fba691f912206bcc2571d3001824ed!OpenDocument
FALUN GONG PERSECUTION FACTSHEET - AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL HAS APPEALED TO THE CHINESE AUTHORITIES TO STOP THE CAMPAIGN OF PERSECUTION OF FALUN GONG, INCLUDING BY RELEASING
ALL THOSE DETAINED SOLELY ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR PEACEFUL RELIGIOUS OR SPIRITUAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES.
Repression of Spiritual and Religious Groups
in China
Religious observance outside official channels in China remains tightly circumscribed.
In March 2005, the Chinese authorities promulgated a new 'Regulation on Religious Affairs' aimed at strengthening official
controls on religious activities.
Unregistered Catholics and Protestants associated with unofficial house churches
were also harassed, arbitrarily detained and imprisoned.
Persecution of Falun Gong
The Falun Gong spiritual movement is banned. When the movement was first banned
in July 1999, police rounded up thousands of practitioners in a Beijing stadium.
The crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement was renewed in April 2005. A
Beijing official clarified that since the group had been banned as a "heretical organization", any activities linked to Falun
Gong were illegal.
Amnesty International has raised concerns that the official campaign of public vilification
of Falun Gong in the official Chinese press has created a climate of hatred against Falun Gong practitioners in China which
may be encouraging acts of violence against them.
A large but unknown number of Falun Gong practitioners remain in detention where
they are at high risk of torture.
More than 250,000 people in China are being detained in camps known as 'Reeducation
through Labour', on vaguely defined charges having never seen a lawyer, never been to a court, and with no form of judicial
supervision. It is unknown how many Falun Gong members are detained in these camps.
Torture and ill-treatment is endemic and widespread in a wide variety of state institutions.
It is frequently used as a punishment against those deemed to be "subversive" or "resisting reform".
Common methods of torture include kicking, beating, electric shocks, suspension
by the arms, shackling in painful positions, and sleep and food deprivation. Gender-specific forms of torture, including rape
and sexual abuse, have also been reported.
Trade in Organs of Executed Prisoners
Chinese authorities conceal national statistics on the death penalty as a "state
secret". Based on public reports available, AI has estimated that at least 1,770 people were executed and 3,900 people were
sentenced to death during 2005, although the true figures are believed to be much higher. In March 2004, a senior member of
the National People's Congress announced that China executes around 10,000 people per year.
There is a widely documented practice of the buying and selling of organs of death
penalty prisoners in China. The lack of transparency surrounding such practices makes it impossible to determine whether written
consent was obtained. Amnesty International also remains deeply concerned that those faced with imminent execution are not
in a position to provide 'free and informed consent' to having their organs extracted.
Amnesty International notes the introduction, in China, of new regulations on organ
transplants on 1 July 2006 banning the buying and selling of organs. However, questions remain about how well the regulations
will be enforced, particularly in view of the high commercial value of organ sales in China. Amnesty International also notes
that the regulations fail to address the basic issue of the source of organs for transplantation.
Report
on alleged live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners
A report published by independent researchers David Matas and David Kilgour on 6th
July 2006, concludes that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners are victims of 'systematic' organ harvesting, whilst still
alive, throughout China.
Amnesty International is continuing to analyse sources of information about the
Falun Gong organ harvesting allegations, including the report published by Canadians David Matas and David Kilgour.
Amnesty International is carrying out its own investigation on this issue. These
investigations are being hampered by the particular difficulty of collecting reliable evidence in China, including official
restrictions on access for international human rights organizations.
Amnesty International has noted the response of the Chinese authorities to the Canadian
report, which states among other things that China has 'consistently abided by the relevant guiding principles of the World
Health Organization endorsed in 1991, prohibiting the sale of human organs and stipulating that donors' written consent must
be obtained beforehand'. Amnesty International considers this statement to be at odds with the facts in view of the widely
documented practice of the buying and selling of organs of death penalty prisoners in China.
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Horrifying rumors circulated last year that China was harvesting organs from live Falun Gong prisoners to meet rising demand.
Falun Gong, a banned practice in China, focuses on meditation exercises intended to improve physical and spiritual health.
Former Canadian parliamentarian David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas investigated the claims.
They uncovered surgeons who bragged about having easy access to Falun Gong organs, Falun Gong prisoners who were regularly
tested to determine donor matches and expatriate Chinese doctors who admitted harvesting organs from live Falun Gong prisoners,
killing them in the process.
This evidence and more led to their July 2006 conclusion: "The government of China ... has over the past half decade put
to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Most ... were murdered by medical professionals
for their vital organs."
Staff members at a Falun Gong detention center in the same Chinese province as Dalian Medical
University have admitted to 'supplying' organs for transplantation purposes.
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7/6/06 CBC news China harvesting Falun Gong organs, report alleges
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9/15/06 National Kidney Foundation: Transplant Tourism - response to Kilgour-Matas Report
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9/29/06 Transcript of U.S. Congressional Hearing - Falun Gong: Organ Harvesting and China's Ongoing War on Human Rights
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12/1/06 Jewish Independent - More rights abuses in China
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1/31/07 - The Kilgour/Matas Report: An Independent Investigation Into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners
in China
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After
years of denial, China has acknowledged that most of the human organs used in transplants here are taken
from executed prisoners and that many of the recipients are foreigners who pay hefty sums to avoid a long
wait.
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11/18/06 LA Times - China admits taking executed prisoners' organs |
David Kilgour's response to the question, "A new law came into force in China on May 1, concerning organ transplants.
What will this law change?"
"I hope it changes everything but the trouble is that the doctors, the military, the hospitals are making hundreds of
millions of dollars by selling organs. So, does anyone think that this new law is going to be enforced? So
many laws in China are not enforced and they're simply passed for public relations reasons. There is no doubt
that the army brags about getting a lot of financing from profits of organ harvesting on one of the websites."
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6/11/07 Transcript of Radio Prague interview with David Kilgour
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"The practice of selling organs
in China was legal until July
1, 2006. The new law banning the selling
of organs appears to be unenforced...
There have been two investigations independent from our own which have addressed the same question we have addressed, that is, whether there is organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China...One
is by Dr. Kirk Allison of the University of Minnesota, another by a European Parliament vice-president, Edward McMillan-Scott. Both came to the same conclusion
that we did... "
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12/11/07 Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China - The Ongoing Catastrophe of Organ Pillaging in China
by David Matas and David Kilgour
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The Legality of Plastinated-Corpse Exhibits
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link
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What happens to unclaimed bodies in the United States?
As of 2004, only 20% of US and Canadian medical schools still used unclaimed bodies in their anatomy
laboratories.
Many states have laws that prohibit anyone from donating unclaimed bodies to "science" or for use in medical schools.
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1/07/04 Journal of American Medical Association -- Unclaimed Bodies at the Anatomy Table
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Before BODIES...the Exhibition premiered in Tampa, the FL Attorney General decided that the exhibit
had to be approved by the state's Anatomical Board in order to open.
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8/15/05 University of Miami Bodies' needs approval of state board
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The FL Anatomical Board refused to sanction the exhibit as BODIES...the Exhibition
opened at MOSI two days ahead of schedule.
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8/18/05 St.Petersburg Times Tampabay: Defiant MOSI unveils 'Bodies'
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The FL Anatomical Board wanted proof that the people displayed had given consent. But Roy Glover, spokesman for
the exhibit said that since the bodies are either unclaimed or unidentified, obtaining consent was impossible.
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8/29/05 Nat Geographic Cadaver Exhibition Draws Crowds, Controversy in FL
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There are virtually no federal or state regulation of plastinated-corpse exhibits. In fact, "There are more laws that regulate shipping a head of lettuce than shipping a human head." -
Dr. Todd Olson, director of the Anatomical Committee of the New York Associated Medical Schools (NYAMS), a nonprofit consortium
that overseas body donation to medical schools throughout NY State
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2/28/06 Columbia News Service - Body exhibits titillate, but are they legal? |
Discussion of BODIES...the Exhibition in San Diego and the loophole in the California Health and Safety
Code pertaining to the procurement, handling and interment of dead bodies
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7/25/07 California Catholic Daily - We object to the lack of dignity in the skinning of the bodies
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Discussion of federal and state regulations regarding plastinated-corpse exhibits. Are the bodies considered to
be human remains or not?
There are no laws regulating bodies that come into the country that are preserved in this way. "Somebody at some
level of government ought to be able to look at a death certificate, a statement from an embalmer, donation documents," Harris
[Paul Harris of the NC Board of Funeral Services] said. "That's a reasonable standard to apply.""
According to U.S. customs officials and the CDC, the 'specimens' are not considered 'human remains' (which would require
more stringent inspection). U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in ports where the exhibitions have arrived have
considered them as standard trade. At least one of the companies involved in the business listed its bodies on a customs form
as "teaching models."
"Joel Paul, an international customs law professor in San Francisco, contends that a product can't be called something
different just because it has been reconfigured. In other words, a body is still a body even if it has
been plastinated."
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9/16/07 newsobserver.com - Few regulations govern bodies exhibitions |
"A
provocative exhibit of plasticized human bodies that has traveled the world has been shut down in Venezuela,
where the government says organizers misled customs inspectors by describing the bodies as plastic."
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3/13/09 ABC News - Dead End: Bodies Exhibit Booted in Venezuela
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"A French judge ruled Tuesday to shut down a Paris
exhibition of real human bodies from
China, saying that exhibiting dead bodies for profit is a "violation of the respect owed to them."
"Under the law, the proper place for corpses
is in the cemetery," said Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard.
Raingeard ordered the exhibition, "Our Body:
the Universe Within," to close within 24 hours or face a fine of 20,000 euros (over 26,000 dollars) for each day it stays
open. The judge also ordered authorities to seize the 17 bodies on display and all of the organs on display from an unknown
amount of people for proper burial.
"These pay-to-view
spectacles of human corpses violate the dead and desensitize the living, diminishing our respect for the human person. In
recent years many countries have banned trafficking in persons and organ trafficking I hope that the
action of the French judge is a first step toward banning the trafficking in corpses for public display,"
said Rep. Chris Hill (R-NY), ranking member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China which monitors human rights
in China."
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4/23/09 ABC 20/20 - France Shuts Down Popular Bodies Show - French Judge Ruled That Exhibiting Human Bodies For Profit is
Against the Law
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The Provenance of BODIES' Corpses and
the Possible Connections with the Falun Gong
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Summary of / excerpt(s) from link |
|
"Under such circumstances, it is highly likely that there are
Falun Gong practitioners' bodies amongst the many body specimens."
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3/29/06 The Epoch Times - Corpses in U.S. Human Body Exhibition from Dalian |
Discussion of the provenance of the bodies, and questions regarding Sui Hong Jin's past association with Gunther von
Hagens.
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4/2/06 Guardian Unlimited - Arts Fury as corpse show comes to UK
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"Canadian lawyer and expert on China's legal system Mr. Clive Ainsley was once asked about the rule
of law in China. He responded, 'That's a good idea. They should try it.'"
Discusses ways in which a Chinese prisoner's body can be classified as 'unclaimed' or 'unidentified' and persecution
of the Falun Gong.
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4/4/06 Epoch Times - New Yorker Wonders: Is Brother's Body on Display
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Listen to radio call-in show with Roy Glover, Spokesman for the BODIES exhibit and Lucia
Tanassi, from the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt.
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4/11/07 WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio - The Kojo Nnamdi Show - Interview with Roy Glover and Lucia Tanassi
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Transcript of Washington Post online forum with Roy Glover, Spokesman for BODIES...The Exhibition. |
4/18/07 washingtonpost.com - transcript of online chat with Roy Glover
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"None of the people who once inhabited the bodies in Bodies gave their consent to be used this way, and that has
made some folks profoundly uneasy. Their doubts are compounded by China's record of human rights abuses, including the harvesting
of transplant organs from executed prisoners."
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6/21/07 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - China 'Bodies' exhibit raises hackles here; Science Center employee quits to protest display
of corpses - By Sally Kalson
|
"China is a major trading partner of the United States and a country with which Americans wish to maintain
friendly relations. That doesn't mean that a blind eye should be turned in its direction. China remains a communist autocracy
with a record of abusing human rights and executing prisoners with scant due process. It may be that everybody in the chain
of delivery acted in good faith, but it would be naive to the point of moral obtuseness to ignore
China's reality."
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6/26/07 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Body of evidence: A coming exhibit challenges our consciences
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"Harry Wu, director of the Laogai Research Foundation, told the Union-Tribune that in
China “a paper document can be created very easily, and you never know if it is legitimate.
China has thousands of executions a year and the government never releases any information about them – even the families
aren’t given notice about an execution until after the execution. We never know where a cadaver comes from, whether
it was donated or obtained illegally.” "
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7/24/07 CA Catholic Daily - Dogged by questions about the origins of the corpses
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Officials at the Customs Bureau here in Dalian and the Dalian Medical
University, however, said they had no records showing the supplier of Premier having acquired bodies and then transporting
them to exhibitions abroad.
“I don’t know where the bodies came from,” said Meng Xianzhi, a
spokesman for the university."
"Part of the reason for the tension
is that Premier’s sole supplier of bodies is Dr. Sui Hongjin, a former general
manager of Dr. von Hagens’ s operation in Dalian. Dr. von Hagens contends that while serving as his
general manager, Dr. Sui secretly ran his own body operation in Dalian. Dr. von Hagens said he then fired Dr. Sui."
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8/8/06 NY Times - China Turns Out Mummified Bodies for Displays
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Roy Glover, spokesman for BODIES... The Exhibition, says its cadavers -- all from China --
did not come from willing donors. "They're unclaimed," Glover says. "We don't hide from it, we address
it right up front."
For that reason, many venues will not display BODIES... The Exhibition. Groups such as the Laogai Research Foundation,
which documents human rights abuse in China, have charged that the category of unclaimed bodies in China
includes executed political prisoners."
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8/11/06 NPR - Origins of Exhibited Cadavers Questioned (part 2 of report):
|
"But some critics question the source of the bodies and the ethics of displaying human beings without consent...Generally,
the controversy has been good for ticket sales, said Tom Zaller, vice president of Premier Exhibitions, the Atlanta-based
company mounting the show."
"The clearinghouse for cadavers used in the exhibit is the medical school in Dalian, a coastal city in China's decaying
rust belt that has become the hub of the corpse-processing industry. The university owns the bodies. Premier Exhibitions is
paying $25 million over five years to lease several sets for its exhibits."
"Zaller said his company has government certificates that guarantee none of the bodies had been a murder victim, prisoner,
mental patient or aborted fetus.
"We've been very honest," he said. "We don't lie about where the bodies come from."
The company declined to provide the certificates, saying they are confidential.
That concerns Sharon Hom, executive director of the watchdog group Human Rights in China. The country has such a thriving
black market for transplant organs that the government recently adopted new rules to ban the sale of body parts, she pointed
out. Couple that with widespread poverty, a strong financial incentive, China's dismal human-rights record and government
secrecy, and conditions are ripe for abuse, she said.
'To trust the Chinese government to say these bodies have been procured in a legal and ethical manner
is really appalling.'"
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8/20/06 The Seattle Times: Local News: All laid bare in "Bodies" exhibit
|
Discusses Ohio State University's Falun Gong Practice Group's protest at BODIES...the Exhibition showing in Columbus.
"China has acknowledged that it harvests organs for transplant from executed prisoners, a practice banned in U.S. prisons.
And, according to the U.S. State Department, China has imprisoned up to 100,000 people since a 1999 crackdown on a movement
called Falun Gong. Practitioners combine spirituality with meditation and exercise. A 2006 State Department
report estimates that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have died in Chinese government custody."
"They weren't executed and weren't prisoners, Glover said. The bodies were unidentified or unclaimed, he said.
"You have to take somebody's word for it," Glover said when asked how he can be sure. He said the
head of the lab at Dalian is a longtime, trusted friend."
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9/15/07 The Columbus Dispatch - Origin of exhibit's bodies contested
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"And it's the provenance of the bodies that raises the most troubling ethical questions
about "Bodies" according to Alan Meisel, a professor of bioethics and law at the University of Pittsburgh.
"I think the burden is on the Science Center to establish that those requirements have been met," he said.
"And I don't think they've been met. I think they've been a little glib about it.""
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10/5/07 Washington Observer Reporter - Bodies education or freak show - By Brad Hundt
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Marcus [Carnegie Science Center’s assistant director of community affairs] said the 15 bodies and
200 partial body specimens are the property of Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta. They were obtained from the Dalian Medical
University in China. He said the bodies on display are unclaimed, and some are believed to have been
political prisoners in China. Only those who died of natural causes are included in “Bodies,”
according to information from the exhibit.
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11/26/07 The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register - BODIES on Exhibit at Carnegie Science Center"
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According to China's laws, stipulated in the Provisional Regulations of the Supreme People's Court
in 1984, "the use of dead bodies or organs from condemned criminals" is permitted in China, if: 1) the criminal's body is
unclaimed or uncollected, 2) the criminal voluntarily gives his body
or organs for medical uses, or 3) upon approval of the criminal's family members.
Thus, we can reasonably question that most of the Chinese cadavers in Dr. Sui's exhibits, currently
touring throughout U.S. cities, come from the same source — executed prisoners. If that is the case,, there can be no justification in the name of science or art for these reprehensible
exhibits. This kind of exhibit, which exploits such a vulnerable and persecuted group, should be banned in the USA.
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12/11/07 Unclaimed Bodies? - By Tienchi Martin-Liao, Director of the Laogai Research Foundation |
On 2/15/08, the ABC News program
20/20 aired a segment on BODIES...the Exhibition and BODYWORLDS. The
investigative team visited Premier Exhibitions' plastinated-corpse supplier in Dalian, China. They found evidence that the bodies of executed prisoners are routinely sold to the plastination plant.
While 20/20 did not find hard evidence that any prisoners' bodies are on display in the exhibits, they left
that possibility wide open.
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02/15/08 20/20 Exclusive - Inside the Bodies Exhibit
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