I saw this exhibit. Very interesting. It did not come off as gross or wrong in any way. No more than cadavers used for medical research (everyday in this country).

Also, its not like there is some huge demand for this that would cause the Chinese to start slaughtering their own (any more than they do already).

Can't wait for Roger Lou to weigh in on this one. Even better than the Asia Chronicles post.

Not to be confused with Body Worlds, which uses only volunteer bodies.

Saw the exhibit....its pretty wild/interesting.

What's the big deal? Plastic Man has been around since the 40s.

This site has really started to suck after the change in format and after Lat started outsourcing his role on the blog to others.

The only way I can see things improving if Kashmir puts some photos of herself on the blog.

Thanks Kash - I hope the garbage can enjoys the 2nd half of my lunch.

Also saw it - not gross. To think so is tacky. Trade you one yuppie epithet for another.

There is also one big glitch with the "only take bodies given by consent", when discussing the use of bodies of Chinese prisoners. How "voluntary" is the consent by someone who is the subject of torture and/or solitary confinement, etc.? (or perhaps was given additional comforts in exchange for the consent)

Agreed with 5:09. Beyond that, the "consent" of some of those who were not prisoners (especially the children), who clearly did not consent and whose parents may not have given consent for them.

4:03 - Don't like it, don't read it.

proof of consent? if they are willing to plasticize chinese prisoners, I am pretty sure faking consent won't be a problem. Besides, have you seen how good chinese fakes can be?

come on. give me a break. The bodies used were UNCLAIMED. There is simply no PROOF that they have come from executed prisoners at all. it's just some stupid congressman's SUSPICION that they may have come from executed prisoners. It's amazing how people are willing to blindly believe anything negative about China/Chinese govt.

The cries about consent are pretty pointless. This isn't a situation where they need a thousand bodies a year and there is some huge demand (as if a million people don't die in China every day from natural causes -- they have over a billion people).

I love the slippery slope arguments that law students/lawyers feel the need to make. Stop worrying about everything. Unless you are worried about your job....then worry about that.

That's a somewhat protectionist trade policy.

12:40, the non-prisoners are part of the consent argument. These were concerns even before US congress attempted to get involved. Can't chalk it up to "blind" negative beliefs about China.

This has been a long-running issue.

There are two competing plastinated body exhibits, which have very different approaches to the consent issue.

BodyWorlds was the original plastinated bodies exhibit. Its organizers claim they only use bodies that were donated to science with full consent, generally by Europeans.

Bodies the Exhibition is the one that uses "unclaimed" bodies from China. The organizers claim that these bodies are not executed prisoners, but given that the bodies tend to come from the police, nobody really seems to know whether there might be executed prisons among them or not.

See this NYTimes article from 2006:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/08/08/business/worldbusiness/08bodies.html?pagewanted=all

Because of the whole "unclaimed" bodies thing, I won't go to the NYC exhibit, even though I'd very much like to see it. One of these days I hope to get a chance to see the BodyWorlds one, though.

The people who say they saw the exhibit and don't think it's gross are totally missing the point. The objection is not to the exhibit of plasticized human bodies. There are two main companies that do these exhibits. One is in Europe and they get the bodies from people who have consented to donate their bodies because of the educational value; they are doing it for science. The other company gets the bodies from the black market in China, where they are most likely executed political prisoners. Their families don't even know what happened to their loved ones. The Chinese are very superstitious about death and have lots of rituals. It is highly doubtful that they would consent to their bodies beind used in these exhibitions, and without that consent, you've basically turned a human being into another commodity.

Wow, yet another day for shameful racism and ignorance. China has over a billion people. 7 MILLION people die normally every year. Don't you think that there will be at least some legitimately unclaimed dead bodies coming from that country? You know, the same kind of bodies unclaimed in America, used by American medical schools?

It's amazing that Bodies the Exhibition happened to only get bodies of "executed political prisoners" when there are quite a few more unclaimed bodies from natural deaths. When there are 7 million dead bodies annually in that country, Bodies the Exhibition needed 100 dead bodies and somehow managed to get the bodies of the (at most) 10,000 executed prisoners (only a small fraction of whom are "political" prisoners, and most of whom are not executed). Brilliant.

And 10:54, it's so cute that you think "Chinese are very superstitious about death and have lots of rituals." Maybe you also think that "Africans" live in huts, carry baskets over their heads, and like to beat the drums.

The 21st century is ready for you when you are.

10:33, Do American medical schools get consent before they use the unclaimed bodies in this country? No, they don't. Then why do you expect the Chinese to get consent for their use of unclaimed bodies?

You use of double standards makes me sick.

12:36 Good point.

Medical School: educational need.

Plastination: voyeuristic pleasure.