Wednesday, February 20, 2008

ABC 20/20 Exclusive: Inside the Bodies Exhibit--Video

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4300571&affil=wcjb

Promoter Insists "Bodies Revealed" are Donated
Written for the web by George Warren

ReporterReporter Brian Ross uncovered evidence some of the bodies used by Premier Exhibitions may be those of executed prisonersAn ABC News 20/20 investigation challenges the source of human bodiesprovided to the company behind public displays in Sacramento and other cities.Premier Exhibitions, which brought the "Bodies Revealed" show to Sacramentoin December, claims all the plasticized corpses come from individuals whodonated their bodies to medical science.The company says, however, bodies used in its other exhibits were unclaimedor unidentified bodies provided by a medical university in the Chinese cityof Dalian.
ABC News 20/20 reporter Brian Ross travelled to China to speak to the president of the medical school, who denied a relationship with PremierExhibitions."They don't give any bodies, they say, to anybody connected with puttingthem on display in the United States. They don't know about PremierExhibitions," Ross said in a satellite interview with News10.Ross said he found evidence that at least some of the bodies are those ofexecuted prisoners bought in a thriving Chinese black market.
Assem. Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, has authored legislation that wouldrequire exhibitors of human bodies to prove the corpses were donated."We need to better regulate these shows to make sure that these bodies are,indeed, donated," she said. Ma's 7_amended_asm_v96.html> Assembly Bill 1519 has been approved by the stateAssembly and awaits action in the state Senate.
In an e-mail, a spokesperson for Premier Exhibitions insisted, "All of thebodies and organ specimens in 'Bodies Revealed' came from individuals whochose to donate their bodies to accredited medical universities... for thepurpose of study and education. All individuals died from natural causes."The spokesperson goes on to say that 20/20's report only pertained to"Bodies...The Exhibition" which is also run by Premier Exhibitions.
Created: 2/15/2008 4:15:13 PMUpdated: 2/16/2008 11:57:24 AM

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