They also have no problem with coercion and deceit. Massive forced labor camps, coerced Catholic Episcopal ordinations, trademark and intellectual piracy, arrests of dissident political and religious figures, insistence on the government right to appoint Tibetan Lamas, tainted food and drug preparations, press and Internet censorship and the arrest of information violators exist hand-in-hand with recent economic openness and liberalization.

Out of about 1,500 officially reported executions in the world for 2006, 1,010 occurred in China. But official numbers obscure a more devastating reality. Amnesty International estimates the real number of Chinese executions in 2006 may be near 8,000.

About 60 offenses can get one executed in China, including murder and rape, but also tax fraud, official corruption and dissident religious and political activities. Execution is by rifle shot to the head or lethal injection. This year, China has begun to move to exclusive use of lethal injection which yields no trauma wounds to its victims. British-based Sky News, Chinese human rights campaigner and 19-year political prisoner Harry Wu, and other China watchers have begun to gather evidence that Chinese traveling execution vans dispatch their victims in a fashion to facilitate organ transplantation. Prisoners to be executed often sign consent forms donating their bodies for medical and educational purposes.

Such consent by condemned prisoners or their families is likely dubious according to former Assistant Secretary of State Michael E. Parmly. In 2001 testimony to the U.S. Congress he said:

"The lack of meaningful consent further compounds our concerns about this practice. According to Article 3 of China's Provisional Regulations on the Use of Executed Prisoners' Corpses or Organs (1984), a corpse may be used for medical purposes if nobody claims the body or the family refuses to bury it; the prisoner voluntarily donates the body for use by medical facilities; or the inmate's family consents to its use after death. The first category opens the door to abuse because families are often not notified of impending executions or are too far away or unable financially to make the trip to claim a relative's body.

"Also, bodies are routinely cremated immediately after a sentence is carried out, making it impossible even for those families who are able to claim a family member's remains to determine whether or not the body has been used for medical purposes."

Until months ago, more than 400 jurisdictions in China could hand out the death penalty with only ineffective regional appeal available. Executions are carried out almost immediately by police bureaus. Relatives of the deceased are often only notified, if at all, after an execution takes place and the bodies of the executed are often not returned to relatives according to Amnesty International reports.

"All of the specimens are unclaimed bodies initially received by the Bureau of Police and then donated to the University and other universities in China for education and research," is the sworn affidavit of Dr. Hong Jin Sui on how he acquires the bodies that eventually end up as playfully-posed, plastinated, sliced and flayed Chinese corpses displayed by for-profit Premier Exhibitions to paying American consumers.

One such exhibit opens Friday in Kansas City - "Bodies Revealed." Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas have criticized the show on the basis of upholding the dignity of the human body and called the exhibit inappropriate for school trips (see statement). But Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions is also facing investigative and legislative attention from several states and Congress over human rights concerns.

On Feb. 15, following a three-month investigation, ABC's 20/20 aired a show investigating the Chinese sources of specimens used in "Bodies" shows. Reporter Brian Ross found that contrary to Premier's earlier assertions that specimens for its "Bodies: The Exhibition" show were procured from Dalian Medical University, they had in fact come from Dr. Hong Jin Sui's Dalian Medical University Plastination Co., LTD, a for-profit, private company 30 miles from Dalian Medical University.

20/20 visited the facility and found technicians working on the bodies of both animals and humans. When reporter Ross asked the company manager where the bodies come from and whether they were executed, the manager said he didn't know.

The show also found that Premier Exhibitions avoids laws pertaining to human remains by labeling them "plastic models" on shipping documents.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), an expert on China's human rights abuses, told ABC the collection of "unclaimed" bodies in China for plastination shows "has every mark of executions and abuse. . There is a due diligence that has to be done, particularly coming from a totalitarian dictatorship where execution of prisoners and a general lack of value for human life are paramount."

Smith's spokesman, Ryan Goodwin, told The Catholic Key that the congressman is preparing a number of responses. He is asking the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which he is a senior member, to hold a hearing. He will ask the U.S. attorney general for an investigation, and he is drafting legislation to require independent certification that specimens in "Bodies" shows come from donors who have given consent. Pending an investigation he is calling for a moratorium on "Bodies" shows.

Democratic Assembly member Fiona Ma from San Francisco is also sponsoring legislation in California demanding documentation of consent from donors before "Bodies" exhibitions can be shown in the state. Similar legislation is being considered in Washington and Pennsylvania.

Ma, a Chinese American, visited Premier's "Bodies Revealed" in Sacramento and was struck that all the specimens were Chinese. "I knew something was wrong," she said. Introducing her bill, Ma said, "As a Chinese American, I know that few people in China would voluntarily donate their organs or bodies due to the strong traditional cultural preference for keeping the body intact for burial."

Without verifiable consent, Ma said, "bodies" shows are "grave robbing and abuse" by companies making millions of dollars "at the expense of someone's son, father, daughter or unborn who did not want to be there."

Ma's bill passed the California Assembly with strong bi-partisan support and now goes onto the State Senate.

Ma's office shared with The Catholic Key a three-page letter from Premier Exhibitions opposing her bill. In it, Premier contends it would be impossible to obtain "specific written permission for any of its specimens" and if Ma's bill passes "these important exhibitions will be outlawed."

Premier has contended that the sources and processes used for obtaining specimens for "Bodies Revealed" is different than those in their "Bodies: The Exhibition," which was the subject of the 20/20 report. Yet the show on exhibit in California is "Bodies Revealed" and the company still claims requiring specific written permission would outlaw the show.

This seems to be at odds with claims made in press materials prepared for the Kansas City exhibition of "Bodies Revealed." A "Q & A" distributed by the venue, Union Station, states that "Premier Exhibitions has given assurances that all of the bodies and organ specimens in Bodies Revealed came from individuals who chose to donate their bodies to medical science for the purpose of study and education."

Union Station provided The Key with a copy of a consent form and confirmed that Premier represents that each of the specimens came from donors who had signed the form. The form provided both to The Key and Union Station is an English translation of a Chinese document with no signature. Union Station confirms in a Kansas City Star report they have not seen any forms that were actually signed.

The Catholic Key attempted by phone and email to Katherine Morgenstern, spokesperson for Premier, to determine whether and where such forms are held and to answer the discrepancy with their assertion to California that they have no specific written permission for the specimens in "Bodies Revealed." There was no response by press time.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched his own investigation of Premier Exhibitions to determine whether "representations that were made to the public about the methods used to obtain the bodies exhibited in the United States are in fact false."

Premier says it will cooperate with the investigation.

END