California Assemblywoman Fiona Ma has introduced a bill in Sacramento that would require companies with touring plastination exhibits to prove that the corpses were obtained through consent. Ma wrote the bill after touring “Body Worlds 2,” the Gunther von Hagens show currently at the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation.
A San Jose Mercury News reporter interviewed Ma, who is of Chinese descent:
To see these plastinized individuals dismantled in various stages, for display in a commercial setting for profit, really disgusted me as an Asian...There’s plenty of questions about how these bodies from Asia got here.These people deserve dignity after death.”
It’s interesting that the “Asian factor” has come to the fore in a state that has a large, economically potent and politically powerful Asian population. Protests in Boston, Durham and Philadelphia have been less successful in drawing in Asian legislators or voting groups.
This ABC news piece gives a good summary — and also increases the “ick” factor by showing how the bodies are leaking….
And here’s another news story that’s available on YouTube:
[youtube]ncpCd4qR0-w[/youtube]
Thanks, Sarah, for the heads up!