Bill would ban importation of bodies for exhibit

WASHINGTON - Protesters and outspoken critics of the "Bodies" exhibits being shown at museums and malls across the country aren't the only ones who think the preserved human remains on display there could be Chinese prisoners.

Some members of Congress think so, too.

Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri has introduced a bill to prohibit the importation of plastinated human remains. He's concerned that some of the Chinese people in the exhibit didn't give permission for their bodies to be on display.

"There are ongoing concerns about China's human rights policies and a lot of evidence of abuses, and this is particularly troublesome, this idea of plastinated bodies," Akin said. "The bodies that are used for this should come from people who volunteered."

Ohio Rep. Bob Latta, a co-sponsor of the bill, agreed.

"There is some speculation that these bodies could have come from executed individuals," said Latta, a Republican. "That would be a real travesty if that happened, if there is profit being made on people being executed."

The exhibits, currently showing in California, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin feature human bodies and body parts that have been preserved using a process called polymer preservation, or plastination, with the bodies shown in various poses.

Protestors have picketed the show in Cincinnati and local faith leaders have spoken out about showing respect for the dead.

Akin's bill would not affect any current shows, and it doesn't single out any particular Bodies exhibit or company that performs plastination.

Two companies offer bodies for display. One exhibit, put on by Gunther von Hagens, the German who invented the plastination process, is called "Body Worlds: The Original Exhibitions of Real Human Bodies." Hagens uses donated bodies and no longer works with corpses obtained from China.

Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta has said the specimens on display are unclaimed or unidentified bodies obtained legally from the Dalian Medical University Plastination Laboratories in China.

But a story aired on ABC's 20/20 reported the bodies used by Premier did not come from the university but instead from a private for-profit lab about 30 miles away. The show quoted an anonymous former participant in the black market who said bodies were sold for $200 to $300 each.

Premier has disputed the allegations.

Akin and other members of Congress say the questions are too important to ignore. Their bill would levy fines up to $10,000 for violations of the import ban.

"Can you ever guarantee, without doubt, that people won't just kill people to sell the bodies to plastinate them?" Akin said.

Under the bill (H.R. 5677), only bodies donated and plastinated domestically would be legal to display. Akin said this would eliminate concerns about human rights abuses in other countries.

The bill has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. No hearings have been scheduled.

Dr. Jeff Weiss looks at an exhibit at "Body Worlds 3" during a tour for doctors and nurses from Phoenix Children's Hospital in March 2007. Weiss is the head of general pediatrics at Phoenix Children's Hospital.