Legacy MattersI'm on record as being creeped out by the Bodies exhibition that has traveled across the country.
Skinned cadaver exhibit
Gruesome Profiting from the Dead
Now I find that There are a few things you ought to know about those 'Bodies'.
Peter Bronson answers the objections of those who say "only uptight Cincinnati" would object to the display of skinned corpses.
Last year the company that leases bodies from China had 11 touring shows of 'Bodies' and made some $30 million in profits.
Fiona Ma, a California lawmaker who passed San Francisco's ban on displaying corpses without consent, says the "grave-robbing" plastination industry in China dissects thousands of bodies for exhibits.
Human rights groups say some of those could be political or religious prisoners who were executed by the same Chinese government that harvests black-market organs.
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"When I see pictures of the exhibit, I feel something," said Morris Tsai, a Chinese-American of Mount Auburn, who protested at the Museum Center. "Maybe it's in the eyes or facial structure, but I can totally see that they're Chinese and I feel sorry for them. For we have taken advantage of the fact that since they died poor and alone, that somehow consent isn't necessary to turn a human being into a museum piece."
He wonders how Americans would feel if the bodies were unclaimed victims of Katrina. The answer is obvious: There would be hell to pay.
"Allowing Chinese to be put on display diminishes me and others like me," Tsai said.
I'd say parading dead bodies for profit diminishes everybody.