February 2008

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.