Bodies…Banned? The saga continues

I first wrote about “Bodies: The Exhibit” a few months ago.  This morning, I am pleased to read this latest development.

Bill would ban ‘Bodies’ imports

The Cincinnati Enquirer

BY MALIA RULON | MRULON@ENQUIRER.COM

WASHINGTON — Protesters and critics of the Bodies exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center aren’t the only ones who think the preserved human remains on display there could be Chinese prisoners – and shouldn’t be displayed.

Some members of Congress think so, too.

Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri has introduced a bill to prohibit the importation of plastinated human remains. He’s concerned that some of the Chinese people in the exhibit didn’t give permission for their bodies to be on display.

“There are ongoing concerns about China’s human rights policies and a lot of evidence of abuses, and this is particularly troublesome, this idea of plastinated bodies,” Akin said. “The bodies that are used for this should come from people who volunteered.”

Ohio Rep. Bob Latta, one of 20 co-sponsors of the bill, agreed.

“There is some speculation that these bodies could have come from executed individuals,” said Latta, a Republican. “That would be a real travesty if that happened, if there is profit being made on people being executed.”

The show in Cincinnati features 20 human bodies and 250 body parts that have been preserved using a process called polymer preservation, or plastination, with the bodies shown in various poses.

It opened Feb. 1 for a seven-month run and already has sold 150,000 tickets priced at $11 to $23. Akin’s bill does not single out any particular Bodies exhibit or company that performs plastination. It wouldn’t affect any current shows.

Museum spokesman Rodger Pille declined to comment on the legislation, but said in a statement that the Museum Center “stands by the strong educational value of this exhibition.”

“The support from the large number of families and school groups who have visited the exhibit and used it as the unique learning tool it is shows the exhibition’s true public benefit,” the statement said.

Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, the firm that produced the Cincinnati exhibit has said the specimens on display are unclaimed or unidentified bodies obtained legally from the Dalian Medical University Plastination Laboratories in China.

But a story aired on ABC’s “20/20″ reported that the bodies did not come from the university but instead from a private for-profit lab about 30 miles away. The show quoted an anonymous former participant in the black market who said bodies were sold for $200 to $300 each.

Premier has disputed the allegations.

Akin and other members of Congress say the questions are too important to ignore. Their bill would levy fines up to $10,000 for violations of the import ban.

“Can you ever guarantee, without doubt, that people won’t just kill people to sell the bodies to plastinate them?” Akin asked.

Under the bill (H.R. 5677), only bodies donated and plastinated domestically would be legal to display. Akin said this would eliminate concerns about human rights abuses in other countries.

Another show featuring plastinated bodies – Body Worlds: The Original Exhibitions of Real Human Bodies – is put on by Gunther von Hagens, the German who invented the plastination process. Hagens says all his bodies are donated and he no longer works with corpses obtained from China.

The bill has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. No hearings have been scheduled.