Spurred by a growing network of activists and ABC’s 20/20 expose, the “Bodies”-style plastination exhibits are under increasing scrutiny nationwide. In Pennsylvania, for example, where the Premier show is housed at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center, state Rep. Michael E. Fleck is preparing a bill that will ban the commercial exhibition of human cadavers without written consent from the deceased or their next of kin that clearly states the person’s intent to be used in a profit-making enterprise.
A similar bill proposed by California state assemblywoman Fiona Ma has been approved by the state Assembly and awaits action in the state Senate.
On February 28, Pittsburgh’s local public television station is hosting a public panel that will be live streamed on the web here. The panel will examine the controversy surrounding these for-profit shows.
Along with the Carnegie’s director, the speakers include the Allegheny County Medical Examiner, the Director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law, the Pittsburgh police officer who runs the Homicide Division and several religious leaders. Although human rights activist Harry Wu, a former Chinese political prisoner, expressed interest in attending, the organizers declined to include him, saying that it was too late to revise the agenda.
Meanwhile, on the day before the 20/20 expose aired, New York’s Attorney General served subpoenas on Premier, opening an investigation into “whether representations made to the public about the methods used to obtain the bodies exhibited in the U.S. are in fact false.”
Harry Wu’s investigation as well as shocking photos of executed Chinese prisoners, are available here.