Before the “Bodies Revealed” exhibition opened, Union Station officials reassured a queasy public by producing the English translation of a donor consent form.
CEO Andi Udris said the form showed that the cadavers in the Kansas City exhibit all came from persons in China who had given permission for their bodies to be used for scientific education.
Shortly after the exhibit opened, station officials learned the form wasn’t authentic. They showed poor judgment by not immediately sharing that knowledge with the public.
Udris says he remains confident that the bodies in the Kansas City exhibit were donated with consent. He acknowledges, though, that he has no way to prove that.
The recent revelation is one more reason to urge Congress to investigate the traveling exhibits that display plasticized human skeletons and body parts.
Producers should have to document where they obtained the bodies and prove they were donated willingly.
Union Station officials say they were initially shown the donor form by an employee of Premier Exhibitions, the exhibit’s producer.That person said it was an English translation of the actual form used by the supplier of the cadavers.
The Catholic Key informed station officials in March that the form was actually from an unrelated business.
Udris said he consulted with Premier Exhibitions, which produced an affidavit from the supplier insisting that all of the bodies in the Union Station exhibit were obtained with donor consent.
That now looks like a questionable basis for trust. As the “Bodies Revealed” exhibit prepares to close its Kansas City showing on Monday, it’s dismaying that new doubts have arisen about the cadavers.
Late but Great
I congratulate the STAR on coming around to the opinion that many of us held from the very beginning. That this particular exhibit was highly suspicious from the get go as to the provenance of the "bodies." The fact that Union Station only now, as the exhibit is about to close, comes clean on the dubious nature of how the bodies were obtained is a sorry comment both on Premiere and those who took their word for everything. It is gratifying when true journalism finally comes to the fore. I do believe that a refund is due to anyone who accepted Union Stations' word for it on the source of the Bodies when Udris and others knew full well that this was suspect at best.
...and they're going to give the money back, right?
I'm really looking forward to their next announced exhibit. You go round back, give the carnie at the door a buck, and once every thirty minutes a wino comes out, sits down, and bites the head off a live chicken. Very, very educational, a piece of living Americana.
I trust the families and friends of the Union Station administrative corps are all proud of what Union Station has accomplished with this exhibit.