Real people. Used without consent.
Cynics call it "corpse art." But Bodies:The Exhibition and Gunther Von Hagen's Body Worlds call their shows "educational." Everyone agrees it's profitable. More than $2 billion.
But who are the people in the exhibit? And how did Premier Entertainment and others get the right to flay them, vivisect them and put them on display? None of these exhibitors have produced death certificates or consent forms.
Many of the bodies are produced in Dalian, China, a city infamous for suspected organ harvesting from executed prisoners.
Corpse Art
Both Premier Exhibition's Bodies and Von Hagen's Body Worlds use real human beings that have been plasticized - that is, turned into plastic. The poses are often playful, like the soccer player to the right. Detractors have labeled these exhibits "corpse art."
"... body-trafficking hucksters..."
Salon
No Death Certificates
All of the exhibitors claim that the bodies were "donated." But none has produced a single death certificates or consent form.
I'm troubled by the fact the bodies are from China," Ron Chew, executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "There are a lot of issues there."
"There are red flags popping up all over the place," San Francisco City Supervisor Fiona Ma told Salon.
they don't tell us anything,"
a docent of the exhibit said.
"They tell us, 'Don't talk about that.'"
Salon
Education Hoax
All the Body shows promote themselves as "educational."
"The bottom line of our exhibition is education," said Dr. Roy Glover, chief medical director for the [Bodies] exhibit, which is presented by Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions
(Seattle Post Intelligencer, September 28, 2006).
The profits are big. Premier Exhibitions is valued at almost $500 million dollars (PRXI). Gunther Von Hagens has taken in over a billion. Read more about the Profiteers.
No Proof of Consent
The Seatle PI reported that "Markel and others are concerned that shows like this do not use bodies from consenting donors and do not make public the paper trail showing exactly where the cadavers came from."
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,” Harry Wu, director of the Laogai Research Foundation, said in the San Diego Union Trubune.
-Harry Wu, Director of the Laogai Research Foundation
San Diego Union Tribune
Dalian, China
The San Diego Union Tribune continues, "Of particular concern are questions about the source of the bodies being displayed, many of which come from the city of Dalian, in China.
Officials from Dalian Medical University previously have been implicated in the use of executed prisoners for commercial purposes, including organ transplants, according to the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington-based organization that documents human rights abuses in China."
Tan Truong, a Seattle practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China, also is worried about the origin of the cadavers, according to the Seattle PI.
- Tan Troung
Seattle Post Intelligencer
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Dubbed Dr Frankenstein in England for his live televised autopsy, and Dr. Death by his employees, and the son of a Nazi SS agent, Gunther von Hagens is a controversial German anatomist who invented the plastination technique to preserve anatomical specimens and is heavily involved in its promotion. He developed the Body Worlds exhibition of human bodies and body parts. He is never seen without his black fedora.
Born Gunther Gerhard Liebchen in what is now Easter Poland, Von Hagen's father was a Nazi SS Agent.
Von Hagens has a history of acquiring bodies through questionable means, including buying bodies in Russia, though now he is trying to foster more supply through body donations. Known to prefer younger specimens, which bring bigger crowds, Von Hagen's Chinese manager boasted in an email to Von Hagens in 2001 that he had obtained the bodies of a "young man and young woman" who had "died" that morning. The pair were "fresh examples" of the "highest quality", the doctor said - and had been killed by a shot to the head. Von Hagens now polls on children's sites to ask kids to consider donating their bodies.
Arnie Geller, was a self employed corporate consultant before teaming with Tom Zaller, Brian Wainger and Stephen Couture at Premier Exhibitions (PRXI).
"For years the publicly traded company put on a singularly lackluster financial performance as an exhibitor of relics from the Titanic. Hampered by legal challenges to its salvage rights on the wreck, shareholder lawsuits and expenses associated with the Titanic shows, Premier didn't begin turning a profit until it embraced cadavers." - San Diego Union Tribune
Listed in Forbes Finance in the 'General Entertainment' category, Premier leases its bodies from a medical research company in China. It says all of the people displayed died of natural causes. Their bodies went unclaimed by family or friends, and instead were donated to science. But Premier doesn't like to talk about it. "For competitive purposes, we're not going to comment on the source of specimens, the availability, other than certainly we're doing everything to comply with legal requirements around the world, " Geller told analysts in May.
North Coast Advisors, in their financial analysis compares Premier to "peers" in the "entertainment sector" such as Cirque de Soleil and IMAX. Based on that model, Premier plans to emulate these shows that are "designed to last forever", opening permanent shows in NY and Las Vegas.