UPDATE:  See the video of the 20/20 Investigative report here.

I was told on Monday that ABC's 20/20 is airing this Friday, February 15 at 10:00PM (Channel 9), an investigative report on Bodies Exhibits including the Bodies the Exhibition that is being shown at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

This story has been described to me as "remarkable".  Brian Ross visited China to determine the origin of the bodies.  I am told that it will be one of the best stories on 20/20 in a long time.

This has the potential to be something quite embarrassing for the Cincinnati Museum Center.

If you're interested in knowing more about the controversial exhibit that is showing at the Cincinnati Museum Center, you should tune in.  Should be interesting!

UPDATES: Most recent on top

UPDATE: Preview of the 20/20 Episode will take place on Good Morning America 2/15/08 around 7:30AM.  WCPO Channel 9 will be interviewing the reporter Brian Ross at noon.  The six o'clock news will have interviews of Ross, Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, CEO of the Museum Center, and myself.


UPDATE: Description of the 20/20 Episode

Plasticized bodies -- every vein, muscle, organ and bone of what was once a real person, carefully preserved in ways that were not possible before -- have become blockbuster attractions across the country. Millions of people have paid to see the bodies that are put on display in a full range of poses, such as running with a football or dancing.

But with the growing popularity have come troubling questions about the bodies. Whose bodies are they? Where do they come from? And is it educational and scientific, as some people say, or are these cadavers just being used for entertainment?

A three-month "20/20" investigation into the business of bodies tracked the ghoulish process to its origins -- from a body processing factory on the German-Polish border, to Internet sites that offer the plasticized bodies for sale, to a rundown warehouse in northern China where "20/20's" undercover cameras saw what has, until now, been kept well hidden.

UPDATE: Now listed on the ABC's 20/20 Page

Friday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m.: Brian Ross Investigates: Millions pay to real human bodies on display in exhibits. Whose bodies are they and where do they come from?

LINKS:
Boycott Bodies the Exhibition Cincinnati
Bodies: the Exhibition in Cincinnati. Unethical.

So, what does the Cincinnati Museum Center and the Tropicana Casino have in common? They're both currently showing Bodies the Exhibition!

It's funny how at the Tropicana it's listed as "Entertainment".  So, now you can play some slots and then check out some dead people. 

So, is Bodies the Exhibition really about education or is it about entertaining and profiting off of the dead? 

From Time.com: Are Plastic Baby Bottles Harmful?

If a new report is to be believed, an entire generation of children has grown up drinking a toxic chemical from their earliest months: bisphenol A. A consortium of North American environmental and health groups released a paper Thursday showing that many major-brand baby bottles leach bisphenol A, and is now calling for a moratorium on the use of the compound -- used to make polycarbonate plastic -- in food and beverage containers.

More scary stuff to think about for parents to be.  This is like the previous story about sugar sugar substitutes.  Are all the products and chemicals that we create benign?  Are there real potential risks or is this something our bodies can cope with and is no big deal.  It's interesting because we really don't know.

From Time.com: Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?

What they mean is that like Pavlov's dog, trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, animals are similarly trained to anticipate lots of calories when they taste something sweet -- in nature, sweet foods are usually loaded with calories. When an animal eats a saccharin-flavored food with no calories, however -- disrupting the sweetness and calorie link -- the animal tends to eat more and gain more weight, the new study shows.

Our bodies are experiments for all sorts of chemicals that we've created.  But, how much do we really know about what we're eating.  The long term impacts of eating processed foods are just beginning to show themselves and we may not like what we're finding.

I saw the Bodies the Exhibition in Cincinnati this morning when I visited the Cincinnati Museum Center to film a segment with Fox19 News voicing opposition to the exhibition.  I had not planned on seeing the exhibit at all, but when I arrived at the production van at the Museum Center to meet with a reporter, she wasn't there. It was raining a little so I decided to seek cover inside. I ended up following an electrical cable through a couple of doors and I suddenly I found myself in the middle of the exhibit.

It was a room eerily quiet only inhabited by the dead.  Around the corner I could hear the sounds of an interview being done so I followed the reporter's voice into another room.  There she was interviewing Dr. Roy Glover, the chief medical director of the exhibit.  I sat down on a bench next to a gentleman who turned out to be Rodger Pille, Director of Media Relations.  I had popped in a little unexpectedly and unannounced to the Museum personnel, but they didn't seem to be too startled by my presence.  I was wearing a suit.  I remembered hearing how Martin Luther King jr. always wore suits when protesting.  It shows that you're serious and that you mean business.

Anyways, some of the exhibit seems more academic, a heart over here, another organ encased in glass over there. Other organs showing different maladies.  This is strongly contrasted with the parts that are meant to be more dramatic and artistic.  Seeing the bodies in poses bothered me a little, especially with all I know about the exhibit and the fact that I was totally alone with the bodies.  However, it was the props that make the exhibit seem undignified to me.  One of the bodies is of a person throwing a baseball.  He's totally naked, except for a glove and ball.  Looking at it, it just seemed a little over the top, meant more for pointing at than learning from.

After seeing the exhibit, my thoughts still haven't changed much.  I am firm believer in consent  You need to have a donor that gives explicit informed consent.  But, my feelings in terms of human dignity might have grown a little more.  It isn't dignified to pose a dead human with a prop.  If medical students were caught doing the same with a cadaver, they'd be kicked out of school.  The intent may have been education, but it has crossed over to exploitation.  And it's something that I would have rather not seen.

Boycott Bodies the Exhibition Cincinnati

If you've ever wanted to become a dissected human exhibit, don't look to Premier Exhibitions, Inc, the company producing Bodies the Exhibition.  Even though there's a place for you to sign up at the exhibit, you're just signing up to donate your body to a university or medical center.

This is directly from Dr. Roy Glover, chief medical director of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. with whom I spoke with today at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

They have no use for those who would willing donate their bodies for this purpose.

If you combine this statement with the idea that some schools have too many bodies, it makes you wonder why they have gone with the "unclaimed bodies" route.

From the BodyWorlds website (the original body show)

There are many people who would like to donate their bodies to medical science after their deaths. One means of doing so is to work with the anatomical institutes of universities. However, such establishments are unable to pass on specimens to other academic institutions in need of such bodies, as costs would be incurred for which they do not want to issue invoices if body donors have not agreed to a sale. In addition, "services" like these are technically not within the declared province of a university in most countries. This situation is particularly awkward, as anatomical institutes frequently have to turn down prospective body donors because they already have more than enough bodies for their own instruction.

If there are ample people who wish to donate bodies to this exhibit, why is Bodies the Exhibition using unclaimed bodies?

I'm reading the FAQ for the Bodies the Exhibition on the museum website.

Where do the specimens come from?
A: All of the specimens in this Exhibition were obtained thorough the Dalian Medical University plastination laboratories in the People's Republic of China. China has a large and highly competent group of anatomists and dissectors, who are essential to properly preparing these specimens for exhibition and educational purposes.

Will we know who the body specimens are? How did they die?
A: The identity and the cause of death of the anatomical specimens are never revealed to the public. Law requires that only the initial authorized recipient -- Dalian Medical University -- have this information, and it may not be disclosed to any third party. Premier Exhibitions obtained the bodies from Dalian Medical University, which has established itself as a leader in the process of plastination. Dalian is an internationally recognized medical university that is governed by the World Health Organization.

Notice how the FAQ neatly skirts around the fact that Premier obtains "unclaimed bodies" from the government and uses them without their consent.  Premier will state this when pressed.  The Cincinnati Museum Center isn't proactive in telling people the whole truth when they visit the exhibit.  This is pretty shady.

I'm surprised at the number of people that believe that these bodies were actually donated bodies.  But it's not even possible, since Premier Exhibitions does NOT use donated bodies.  They won't take you even if you want them to.

What is Bodies the Exhibition?

WCPO Channel 9 News ran a story tonight about the Bodies: the Exhibition controversy.  My sister Janice and I were both interviewed about the issues.  Only a short segment was used of our interviews but I think we got our points across.  It was an interesting experience and I was glad to have the opportunity to get the message out to a large audience. 

However, it might get drowned out by all the TV advertising and billboards the Museum Center has bought.  This is going to be a cash cow for the museum and they're going to milk it for all its worth.  Then this exhibit moves on to the next unsuspecting city to rake in millions all over again. Sad.

From WCPO.com: Bodies ...The Exhibition Draws Criticism (VIDEO)
From WCPO.com: Bodies ...The Exhibition Draws Criticism (Story)