Hawaii Shuts Down Real Human Bodies Show
Island State Becomes First in the Union to Ban Controversial Exhibitions of Real Human Bodies from China
Where Do the Human Bodies Come From?
Premier denies that any of the bodies on display are from executed prisoners, saying that all of the bodies came from a medical school in Dalian, China, and that their suppliers assured them that no evidence of trauma has been found of any of the bodies put on display.
But school officials told 20/20 it was "not true" that the school provides bodies for display in the U.S. Instead, the report found the bodies were provided by a private company run by a professor from the medical university which initially supplied the bodies but had pulled out because of bad publicity.
In the wake of the 20/20 report, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a probe into the company's practices. Premier settled with Cuomo's office in May 2008, and the terms of the settlement required the company to prove that any new bodies on display were from consenting individuals.
Premier was forced to post a sign at its New York exhibit and state clearly on its website that it cannot disprove the allegations that bodies on display come from executed prisoners. The company is also required to refund tickets of customers who would not have seen the show if they had known what was going on behind the scenes. Cuomo also requires that the company be monitored by an independent entity for two years to ensure that the new business practices are enacted.
The company said it "must rely on the affirmations of its Chinese supplier" that the specimens do not come from the remains of executed prisoners.
The company's CEO Arnie Geller told ABC News 20/20 in February 2008 that he was "appalled" at the allegations that some of the bodies from his Chinese suppliers might be those of executed prisoners. He said his own medical staff had seen no such evidence and that his suppliers have assured him that "these are all legitimate, unclaimed bodies that have gone through Dalian Medical University."
"If these can actually be attributed to even the people that we're doing business with, we would have to do something about that immediately," Geller said.
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