More photos (if you dare)
As I reported in today's Kansas City Star, ABC's Brian Ross is going behind-the-scenes to examine the somewhat shady and undeniably gruesome work of molding dead bodies into wildly popular museum exhibits. It's a timely story for us because the company Ross is investigating is bringing "Bodies Revealed" to Kansas City in two weeks. Above, Ross with the self-promotey Gunther von Hagens, whose technique of "plasticizing" human cadavers set off the craze. It's von Hagens' competition, Premier Exhibitions, that Ross has some troubling goods on. Story's on the jump.
( Note: This is my pre-edited version. )
New questions raised about Union Station exhibitor
The company behind the “Bodies Revealed” exhibit may have improperly acquired some of its cadavers, an ABC news report airing tonight alleges.
Kansas City Union Station officials believe that the bodies in question are featured in a different touring exhibit than the one opening Feb. 29 at the station. They said officials with Premier Exhibitions disputed the allegations by ABC's Brian Ross that the cadavers were obtained in violation of Chinese law, that some were executed prisoners and that not all were processed by a university in Dalian, China (as Premier officials have claimed all along).
“Bodies Revealed” is one of at least four touring exhibits featuring exquisitely preserved human remains that have played to huge audiences around the world. Scoring “Bodies Revealed” was considered a major coup for Union Station, which is counting on high-profile shows like this to deliver much-needed crowds and revenues.
The bodies featured in these exhibits are preserved with a special polymer that essentially encases them in plastic. Some bioethicists have raised concerns about the dignity of featuring corpses in what they believe is a sensationalistic and undignified manner, while others have questioned their educational if not their entertainment value.
However, the focus of the “20/20” report, airing at 9 p.m. tonight on KMBC-TV, is on discoveries that Ross made during a recent visit to China. In an interview Thursday, Ross -- perhaps best known for revealing the lewd text messages that led to Rep. Mark Foley's resignation in 2006 -- said that university officials in Dalian told him that, contrary to Premier's assertions, they were not the sole supplier of cadavers to “Bodies: The Exhibition.” That show is Premier's highest-profile anatomical exhibition and has just begun a seven-month run at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
“We found in fact they don't come from the university but from a company on the outskirts of town in a series of ramshackle warehouses on a dirt road,” Ross said. “It's run by somebody who's a professor at the university but it's not the business of the university. The question is where does he get the bodies?”
Ross said he visited the compound briefly, before officials ejected him and his crew, and interviewed a former employee who said that at least a third of the cadavers he processed were executed prisoners. That's an allegation human rights groups have made about anatomical traveling shows and one which Premier has repeatedly denied. In 2006, Arnie Geller, the CEO of Premier, told the New York Times, “We traced the whole process. None of these would be executed prisoners.”
Ross said that's what a Premier official told him, too. But he said the ex-employee is certain of the corpses' provenance, “because he was involved in going around China picking them up.”
Calls to a Premier spokeswoman were not immediately returned Thursday night.
The investigation began last year, after Ross read a news item about a couple in Grand Rapids, Mich., who received a DHL shipment by mistake containing body parts from China. The story noted that the human head and liver were meant for Corcoran Laboratories in Traverse City, Mich., a supplier of cadavers to Premier.
“That's when I said, 'What is this all about? Shipping bodies around? Is that legal?'” Ross said.
In fact, China banned the commercial export of corpses in 2006 in an effort to stem a robust black market in organ selling. Ross then found documents filed with U.S. Customs stating that the bodies were “plastic models” being imported for medical education. He said at least three such shipments were made to agents of Premier in 2007, after the ban was in effect.
Ross said he found that troubling. “Regardless of how they're preserved, they're still humans,” he said.
In a 2006 SEC filing, Premier Exhibitions named Corcoran as “the party with whom PE has contracted for its exclusive use in the presentation of 'Bodies Revealed' exhibits.” That is the one opening Feb. 29 at Union Station.
However, at a committee meeting of the Union Station board on Wednesday, Station CEO Andi Udris said the company had received a phone call from a Premier representative warning that the “20/20” report would be airing on Friday. He said that Premier had assured Union Station that its exhibit featured only cadavers acquired through a supplier in Beijing, and that all of the bodies came from willing Chinese donors.
That might not be enough to appease the show's critics, Udris said, but “as long as people keep talking about it, it's good for us and good for the community.”
( The Star's Matt Campbell contributed reporting to this story. )
