Seattle's Most Culturally Offensive Exhibit
ABC News shows cadavers may have come from prisoners
The Mystery of the Crying Cadavers
Seattle's Most Culturally
Offensive Exhibit
ABC News shows cadavers may have come from prisoners
These exhibits are banned or
shut down in
Hawaii, San Francisco, California, Germany, Russia, France and recently Venezuela.
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PRESS RELEASE Aug. 28, 2012 for immediate
release Premier Exhibitions which has since been banned from the City of Seattle owns the marketing rights for the exhibit the Universe Within. "...the use
of cadavers - with or without permission, is an insult to the dead -
no matter which culture." BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SEATTLE
AS FOLLOWS: |
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NEWS! Seattle City Council passes ordinance that bans commercial display of human remains without Consent! Council Bill Number: 116916
regulating the commercial display of human remains, establishing that
unlawful commercial display of human remains is a civil infraction,
and creating a new section 14.14.010 of the Seattle Municipal Code passed
unanimously 9-0 on Mon. July 19, 2010.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SEATTLE
AS FOLLOWS: The passing of this ordinance proves it is possible for individuals and small groups to make change in their communities. If this exhibit is coming to your city, cite this new city ordinance as proof that cities, states and countries have banned this exhibit and continue to ban its showing in the United States as a human rights violation.
"...the use of cadavers - with or without permission, is an insult to the dead - no matter which culture." - Bettie Luke, sister of Wing Luke, former Assistant Attorney General of Washington state and namsake for the Wing Luke Asian Museum. "I hope the Bodies Exhibit gets closed down and they profit no more from these cadavers of Chinese people who never gave consent to be on display." -Bettie Luke Public
Comments Bettie Luke's written Statement: "Good afternoon, my name is Bettie Luke, a life-long member of the Chinese American Community in Seattle. I want to thank Councilmember Licata for crafting this legislation. I want to acknowledge Charlotte at the Museum of Mysteries and Tan Troung, Rep. of Falon Gong for keeping the resistence to the Bodies exhibit alive, for many years. I want to commend Patrick Burns, whose passion and persistence, was the catalyst that brought us to this point today. I want it on record that when Mr. Burns sent in his letter of objection to the exhibit, he asked me to sign on. I did so, as well as Jack Peng and Doug Chin. Here is an additional letter that I asked him to forward, and have a copy if it did not get in the file. It is a letter I wrote to Ron Chew after his letter (along iwth other signatures) was published in the International Examiner Newspaper. The Bodies exhibit is a cultural affront. Chinese do not treat the dead in this manner. It is a violation of cultural sensibilities to display dead bodies like this. Imagine if you will - a person close to you, who has passed away. How would you feel if after the funeral, the body was waylaid and sent to a processing plant to plasticize it and be posed in a ballet stance or pumping iron. How would you feel? This is not science. It is a carnaval
side show of the "wierd and wonderful", so to speak. There are laws that govern museums in the nation on Native American artifacts and remains. All artifacts and remains must be returned to the tribe of origin. You may be aware that when Gary Locke was Governor, a huge construction was halted because of the discovery that it was on Native American burial ground. It cost the state millions of dollars. But it had to be done. It was the right and respectful decision. I ask that this governing body make the right and respectful decision. Thank you" - Bettie Luke, Seattle City Council Meeting, July 14, 2010 Bettie Luke also thanked City Attorney Peter Holmes for developing the ordinance.
From Letter February 28, 2010 Thank you for hte letter you wrote to the Editor of the Seattle Times and the International Examiner Dec. 18, 2009 concerning the "Bodies Exhibit" currently in a downtown Seattle exhibit space. I concur with your views.... ..."When members of my own family
died, I remember my mother removing images and covering up the face
of the deceased person in photos. I was told that if their images were
displayed, that person would be constantly called back and their sould
would wander a middle world, that their soul would never find rest. I read that in a 2008 expose by the ABC News program "20/20", a self-admitted participant of a bodies black market provided a photo he took of Chinese corpses with their hands tied behind their backs. That awful image casts a vulture-like pall, knowing the macabre fate of those bodies delivered for processing. I hope the Bodies Exhibit gets closed down and they profit no more from these cadavers of Chinese people who never gave consent to be on display. Most sincerely, Bettie Luke
My name is Patrick Burns. Consent is the last human right I want to thank Councilman Licata and his co-sponsors, Godden, Harrel and Burgess for offering this legislation to council. I also wan to thank City Attorney Peter Holmes. The Bodies Exhibition which displays
the plasticized bodies of deceased Chinese human brings for profit has
been banned in It's been: 1. Exposed for its mendacity and barbarity
in the Feb. 14th, 2008 ABC report, "Inside the Bodies Exhibit" Why? Public officals grasped the enormity of hte moral outrage being perpetrated on their communities. They understood this exhibit is a cultural violation to the Chinese community, a human rights abuse, and very possibly a crime against humanity. The exhibitor admits these embalmed/plasticized bodies are originaly obtained from the Chinese Police. The bodies are unclaimed an have no identification. The ABC 20/20 report found solid evidence of a secondary, criminal market in which bodies are sold for a few hundred dollars each. These deceased Chinese people never gave their consent to have their bodies be horribly altered and then displayed in a carnival atmosphere for an American Entertainment Corporation to make a profit. NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo forced Premier Exhibitions to publicly admit it cannot guaranteed the bodies it displays were not those of prisoners who were tortured or exectuted. Premier cannot guaranteed the bodies it displays were not political prisoners. Your moral duty is clear. The City of Seattle should never have permitted the Bodies Exhibit to open its doors in 2006 nor 2009. We urge City Council to pass legislation which would ban the exhibition of human remains without the absolutely verifiable consent of the deceased only. Legislation which would allow for a government authority to substitute its consent or even a family member's consent is not acceptable. The wishes of any human being should be paramount in regards to the disposition of one's remains in these circumstances.) |
NEWS
ABC News Brian Ross reveals Black Market in Bodies used for Cadaver Shows
Brian Ross questions CEO of Premier
Exhibitons Arnie Geller with photo of executed bodies that may have been used
for his exhibits.
Cadavers being brought improperly to the U.S. labeled
as plastic modesls.
Photos of bodies with their hands tied behind their
backsto be picked up by plastination labs.
See Geneva Convention article below which states it is a violation to desecrate
bodies of prisoners.
New York visitors to get
Refunds
Lawmakers call for Crackdown on Exhibits with Federal Bill that prohibits
the importation into the U.S. of plastinated human remains
...."The
grim reality is that Premier Exhibitions has profited from displaying the
remains of individuals who may have been tortured and executed in China,"
said N.Y. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.
"Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate
the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals. Nor is Premier
able to establish that these people consented to their remains being used
in this manner. Respect for the dead and respect for the public requires that
Premier do more than simply assure us that there is no reason for concern.
This settlement is a start."
Crackdown
on Ghoulish 'Body Exhibitions' New York
AG Says Company Profited From Individuals That May Have Been Tortured or Executed
in China
By ABC News
RICHARD ESPOSITO and ANNA SCHECTER
May 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4950595&page=1
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the company that has made millions of dollars with U.S. exhibitions of plasticized human bodies used "the remains of individuals that may have been tortured and executed in China." In announcing what he called the "grim reality" of an official investigation triggered by an ABC News "20/20" report, Cuomo said the company, Premier Exhibitions, "despite repeated denials...had no way of knowing the true source of their human exhibits and no meaningful documentation to support their claims that the bodies had been donated for such a use." Cuomo said his office had reached a settlement with Premier that he said will "bring an end to Premier's practice of using bodies of undocumented origins in their exhibitions." "Respect for the dead and respect for the public requires that Premier do more than simply assure us that there is no reason for concern," said Cuomo.
Premier Exhibitions
Inc. has reached a settlement with the Attorney General of the State of New
York over its controversial "Bodies... The Exhibition" and allegations the
cadavers used in the exhibit came from executed and or tortured Chinese prisoners.
"Bodies... The Exhibition" shows plasticized cadavers frozen in various poses
with sections of the body flayed or dissected to reveal the complicated mechanics
of the human body.
As part of the settlement, Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions (NASDAQ: PRXI)
will disclose on its Web site, in the entrances of any New York exhibitions,
and in its New York advertising that it cannot confirm the bodies and parts
being displayed were not, or did not belong to, Chinese prisoners who may
have been victims of torture and execution.
The company has also agreed to create an escrow fund of $50,000 to reimburse
customers who claim they would not have attended the New York City exhibition
had they known the alleged origins of the cadavers.
Any funds remaining in the escrow account after eight months and not paid
to eligible consumers will go back to the company. Also under the settlement:
* Going forward, before displaying a body as part of any New York exhibit,
Premier must get written documentation demonstrating the source of each body
and body part, the cause of death and the decedent's consent to the use of
his or her body. * Premier will keep an independent monitor, at its own expense
for two years to ensure the terms of the settlement are followed. The monitor
will also oversee the refund process. * Premiere Exhibitions will pay $15,000
to the Attorney General of the State of New York.
The Attorney General did not find the company uses the remains of executed
prisoners in its exhibition.
The company said it must rely on the affirmations of its Chinese supplier,
the head of anatomy at the Dalian Medical University, a teaching hospital
recognized by the World Health Organization, that the specimens do not come
from the remains of executed prisoners.
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NEWS Will Seattle Ban the Bodies
Exhbit?
PRESS RELEASE 3/15/2010 for immediate release Citizens of Seattle have submitted a letter to Seattle City Council and Seattle City Atty. Peter Holmes proposing an ordinance to ban the display of human remains without consent. Consent, The Last Human Right
No Consent Community & Editorial That¹s entertainment? by: Patrick Burns Published in Real Change, Feb. 24, 2010 http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/3862/ In ³Bodies,² the cadavers of China¹s dispossessed are exhibited for spectacle ‹ and profit Printer-Friendly Version Like it? Share it! Sometime last fall, Premier Exhibition, an entertainment company, rolled its trucks into the middle of downtown Seattle to unload crates containing the butchered remains of Chinese human beings, which they put on display in a for-profit venture that raised little community objection. ³Bodies² has been here before. When it first appeared in the autumn of 2006, it encountered more vocal resistance: a lot of negative press and editorial-page opinion highlighting the dubious origins of these bodies. Activists forced an inquiry by the county Medical Examiner; and, the following year, a proposed state law banning this kind of exhibit didn¹t get out of committee. Now ³Bodies² is on display for a return showing, through March 2010. After a lot of thought, I finally decided to patronize the current exhibit. I didn¹t go to satisfy some prurient interest or to increase my knowledge of the human body. I went to pay my respects and bear witness to a massive crime against humanity. I paid a little over $20 for my ticket to the cashier, who cheerfully told me to ³have a good time.² These cadavers are unclaimed bodies obtained by a Chinese rendering contractor from the Chinese police. In February [18] 2008, ABC¹s ³20/20² also found evidence of an illicit Chinese fresh corpse market where bodies are initially sold for a few hundred dollars. Before they died these Chinese people never gave their consent for their bodies to be desecrated. The ³plastination² of corpses is the wretched process of submerging the body in a vat of acetone, peeling off the skin and then reconstituting a majority of bodily tissue with caulk. Afterwards, the body is carefully plucked apart and horrifically altered for display. The lighting of the exhibit was excellent. Ethereal music, wafting continuously, made for a numbing palliative. The first corpse I saw was a male, posed as a tennis player. Chinese dissectors, the tennis player¹s countrymen, had exposed his brain on both sides by cleanly sawing through the skull and removing portions of it. They removed skin and muscle from the anterior torso, to expose the digestive organs and the heart, as well as most of the rest of his skin, except for that on his face, hands, and parts of his thighs and feet. Like all the ³specimens,² his human name was replaced with a serial number ³L2006.211,² which may signify the year his corpse was obtained, along with where he stood in the cue to be rendered. Others were much the same. Tendon and artery, muscle and organ, peeled skull and opened thorax, genitals: all are readily visible. They are posed in entertaining postures: a female cadaver has an imposing ³attitude² as she looks the viewer in the eye; one cadaver has its muscular system separated from its skeleton, with the two systems holding on to each other at the fingertips. The Chinese are known for their ancient and stringent beliefs surrounding the care of their dead. The body is not viewed; pictures are removed during the extensive mourning period. To those who have inculcated several millennia of spiritual belief concerning the soul and its living vessel¹s disposition, the tennis player¹s eternal exposure must be excruciating. My fellow sojourners smiled and talked as they passed dead bodies. There were young people holding hands, older ones walking side-by-side, teens and preteens with their parents. One young man stood in front of the nude female cadaver and laughed at her. On the way out, as a meager gesture of my sorrow, I left a short-stemmed red rose I had carried in at the foot of the tennis player. Other locales have had some success in curtailing or stopping this exhibit. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo forced Premier Exhibitions to both display a sign warning the public that not all the bodies on exhibit may have died of natural causes and that, in life, these people could have been political prisoners tortured and executed by the Chinese government; Premier also agreed to refund any New York patrons the ticket price for not being informed of the possible criminal origin of the displayed cadavers. Last year Hawaii joined California to ban the ³Bodies² exhibit. Locally, a group of concerned citizens is urging Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes to employ current legislation to both close ³Bodies² and keep it from returning. If there is any good news in all of this, Premier Exhibitions has proven to be its own worst enemy. In 2008, its stock value had climbed to a high of $18. Its former CEO spent tremendous amounts of money to increase the number of exhibits. Still, in no way did he even reach the profit margin his investors were expecting. The stock value has dropped 95 percent. Negative publicity from protests and especially from an incisive ³20/20² report have had a damning effect. Though the exhibit has one more month, I am hoping like minded individuals will raise their voices to expedite the removal of this blight from our city. Join us in our nonviolent actions to make patrons understand they are witnessing a holocaust. Let Seattle City Council know it should join the other communities which have banned this crime against humanity. |
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Missouri Congressman
Akin Introduces Bill to Ban Import of Bodies from China The letter notes that the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC), the prominent science museum in the region, had declined to display the exhibit due to its inability to verify consent by the deceased. The letter states, ³It is our understanding that the Saint Louis Science Center declined to host this exhibition due to ethical concerns. I consider this to be very significant given that the SLSC does not object to the display of plastinated human remains in principle if there can be a verifiable guarantee of informed consent of the deceased. Not only does this decision not to host the display speak well of the ethical standards of SLSC, it is very troubling that such an informed decision by an established science museum is not being echoed by your retail establishment.² The seriousness of the potential violation of human rights is underscored by a disclaimer from a 2008 Premier Exhibition in New York City that read, ³This exhibit displays full body cadavers as well as human body parts, organs, fetuses and embryos that come from cadavers of Chinese citizens or residents. With respect to the human parts, organs, fetuses and embryos you are viewing, Premier relies solely on the representation of its Chinese partners and cannot independently verify that they do not belong to persons executed while incarcerated in Chinese prisons.² ³I do not believe that as a nation we should tolerate even a chance that we are allowing the public display of executed prisoners for the edification or amusement of shoppers,² stated Akin. ³Such a display is an affront to our national conscience and makes a mockery of all we profess to hold dear.² http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.5524: H.R.5524 -- To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit the importation into the United States of plastinated human remains from the People's Republic of China. (Introduced in House - IH) 111th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5524
To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit the importation into the
United States of plastinated human remains from the People's Republic
of China. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 15, 2010 Mr. AKIN introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and
Means A BILL To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit the importation
into the United States of plastinated human remains from the People's
Republic of China. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. PROHIBITION
ON IMPORTATION OF PLASTINATED HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
OF CHINA. (a) Amendment- Part I of title III of the Tariff Act of 1930
(19 U.S.C. 1304 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 308 the
following: `SEC. 308A. PROHIBITION ON IMPORTATION OF PLASTINATED HUMAN
REMAINS FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. ` (2) PERSON- The term `person' includes any individual, partnership, corporation, association, organization, business trust, government entity, or other entity subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. ` (3) PLASTINATED HUMAN REMAINS- The term `plastinated human remains' means human remains, including tissues, organs, and other body parts, that are preserved from decay by replacing the water and fats in the human remains with a polymer. ` (4) SECRETARY- The term `Secretary' means the Secretary of Homeland Security. (5) UNITED STATES- The term `United
States' means the customs territory of the United States, as defined
in general note 2 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
`
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Seattles Chinese Americans Speak out against Exhibit
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Hawaii Shuts
Down Real Human Bodies Show France Shuts Down Real Human Bodies Show http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0422/1224245137202.html French judge rules 'indecent' bodies exhibition must close Brown moves to quell 'second home' dispute PARIS An exhibition of human bodies, which has travelled the world and been seen by millions, is indecent and must shut down, a French judge has ruled. The decision is based on a new law that regulates how corpses can be disposed of and could force all French museums to withdraw bodies or skeletons from display. The ³Our Body² exhibition, similar to the ³Bodies² show which ran in Dublin recently, features cadavers that have been flayed to reveal internal body workings. French rights groups condemned the show, repeating accusations from previous such shows that the unidentified bodies might be Chinese execution victims. Two groups took the organisers to court and, in a ruling released yesterday, Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard said the exhibition denigrated the body, without entering into the issue of the origin of the bodies. ³The law says a body should be in a cemetery,² the judge said, giving the organisers 24 hours to shut down the exhibition or face a fine of ¤20,000 for each day they refused to comply with the order. The judge also said the corpses should be handed over to the authorities under threat of a fine of ¤50,000 a day. The French exhibition was organised by events entrepreneur Pascal Bernardin, who said he would appeal. ³I am staggered by this decision,² he said. ³There is no lack of respect for the dead here.² Numerous versions of the show have been seen by some 30 million people worldwide. The Paris exhibition had been scheduled to stay open until May 10th. (Reuters)
Venezuela Shuts Down Real Human Bodies ShowVe
Cadaver
Fears Prompt Venezuela Customs to Close ŒBodies¹ Show
A congressman
and critic of human rights abuses in China is urging a federal probe
into the origin of Chinese corpses put on display at "Bodies" shows,
including one at the Carnegie Science Center.
New York Attorney General investigating Cadaver Exhibitor Premier Exhibitions N.Y., China Investigating
Black Market in Bodies By BRIAN ROSS, RHONDA SCHWARTZ
and ANNA SCHECTER Subpoenas from the New York attorney general were served Thursday on Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions, which operates body shows in more than a dozen cities. In a statement, the Office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said it investigating "whether representations made to the public about the methods used to obtain the bodies exhibited in the U.S. are in fact false.".....
"We stand by our report," ABC News senior vice president Jeffrey Schneider told Dow Jones Newswires late Friday - CNN Money.com
"On February 14, 2008, the Company [ Premier Exhibitions} received a subpoena from the New York State Department of Law. The subpoena requires, among other things, that the Company produce documentation related to the production and sourcing of human anatomy specimens that are or have been displayed at the Company's New York City "Bodies...The Exhibition" exhibit. The Company intends to comply with its legal obligations with respect to this subpoena."
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Odyssey Value Advisors wants Premier Exhibitions to sell http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/07/07/daily51.html San Francisco-based Odyssey Value Advisors LLC Managing Partner William Vlahos has sent a letter to Premier Exhibitions Inc.'s board of directors demanding the company put itself up for sale or divest its assets in its Titanic exhibition series due to an inability to "generate any shareholder value for a prolonged period of time." Odyssey Value Advisors, an investor in Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions (NASDAQ: PRXI), argues that "...given the extended period of time that has passed, and the efforts of multiple management teams, now is the appropriate time to monetize the company's assets to maximize shareholder value." On Tuesday, Premier Exhibitions posted a net loss of $912,000 on $15.2 million in revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2009, hurt by legal fees and higher exhibition moving expenses. The company also is dealing with the fallout from negative publicity related to claims its "Bodies... The Exhibition" tour uses cadavers of executed prisoners and claims the exhibition is unethical. In May, it settled with the Attorney General of the State of New York over the issue. In the earnings report, Premier Exhibitions President and CEO Bruce Eskowitz emphasized the company's plan to expand and diversify into a "vertically integrated live entertainment company will take time and patience as our revenues catch up with our increased cost structure." However, Odyssey Value advisors believes Premier Exhibitions' growth strategy is too large and too risky, and that the company would be "PRINTING money, enjoying their historically high return on equity and the stock would surely be trading in double digits" if it adopted a more moderate growth plan. "We feel that the current 'empire building strategy' of attempting to become one of the largest sellers of entertainment tickets, at the expense of short to intermediate profitability is a flawed strategy that is clearly not working," Vlahos wrote. "It would take several years for this strategy to possibly prove to be successful. Clearly that is not worth the time, erosion of resources, and greatly diminished return on equity, even for the most patient of shareholders." Vlahos' letter to Premier's board follows: "Dear Premier Exhibitions Board of Directors: "Odyssey Value Advisors LLC calls upon Premier Exhibitions' (NASDAQ: PRXI) Board of Directors to hire a nationally recognized investment banking firm to explore the sale of the company, or the Titanic assets, for the purpose of maximizing shareholder value. "While we realize that the first quarter results were skewed by the timing of certain events and partners, as well as broad economic weakness, the company has not been able to generate any shareholder value for a prolonged period of time. In our opinion, given the extended period of time that has passed, and the efforts of multiple management teams, now is the appropriate time to monetize the company's assets to maximize shareholder value. "While we think highly of Mr. Eskowitz, we feel he has not made substantive enough progress to date, as evidenced by the series of decreasing earnings and cash flow generation since he has come aboard, culminating in Q1's unacceptable EPS loss. "The company continues to pursue a risky mega-growth strategy which jeopardizes the strong margin of safety that exists with cash and assets. We feel that the current 'empire building strategy' of attempting to become one of the largest sellers of entertainment tickets, at the expense of short to intermediate profitability is a flawed strategy that is clearly not working. It would take several years for this strategy to possibly prove to be successful. Clearly that is not worth the time, erosion of resources, and greatly diminished return on equity, even for the most patient of shareholders. "If the company pursued a more moderate growth strategy, which we think would be prudent given the state of the consumer and economy, Premier Exhibitions would be PRINTING money, enjoying their historically high return on equity and the stock would surely be trading in double digits. "The misguided strategy of scaling corporate SG&A by 300% year over year while delivering only 34% revenue growth in the same time period has led to the destruction of shareholder value. We implore the board of directors to explore the sale of the company or its Titanic assets, given their estimated value is clearly worth substantially more than the current company market cap. "As the stock price has declined by approximately 80% over the past year, management has been in the fortuitous position of receiving substantial (some may argue egregious) compensation, while shareholders have been decimated. Mr. Geller is currently receiving a salary of $675,000 for serving as chairman of a $100mm market cap company. While Mr. Geller created the company, and we applaud the fact that he owns millions of dollars worth of stock, there is no economic justification for his current compensation package, which is paid for by shareholders. "Mr. Couter, the former CFO, sold millions of dollars worth of stock, at prices that are five times higher than current prices, soon after providing financial guidance that was light years away from the economic realities. "Mr. Eskowitz received $2mm in a cash bonus for simply joining the company. Since he has come aboard, the stock has fallen 80%. Mr. Eskowitz has not felt the economic pain of shareholders, as he has never purchased stock with his own capital despite numerous promises. "However, the assets of the company are valuable. Clearly, the value of the artifacts of the Titanic, especially with the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the ship less than four years away, is worth considerably more than the current market cap. By our estimation, the assets of the Titanic are most likely worth at least twice the market cap. Furthermore, the rights to the personal possessions of the survivors, which should be clarified soon, are worth multiples of that. "In addition to the assets of the Titanic, the company's exhibits clearly have value. Premier operates the very successful Titanic shows (only a portion of the Titanic assets are even used for these shows), a very successful Bodies exhibition, and has two new promising exhibitions scheduled to come on line in the near future. "A strategic buyer/acquirer of the business could streamline bloated costs; eliminate incremental costs of being public, while deploying Premier's valuable content on an existing distribution platform. Alternatively, or in addition to, a court approved sale of the Titanic assets to a collector would surely yield a sum much greater than the current market cap, especially with the optionality of the personal possessions. "Given the lack of debt, successful exhibitions and incredible value of the assets, it is clear that this enterprise is worth at least twice the current market cap. Since multiple management teams have been unable to unlock the company's inherent value, we call for the immediate sale of the company or similar activities that would provide relief for long suffering shareholders. "While we can't speak for any other shareholders other than ourselves, we suspect all shareholders will appreciate your acceptance of the current realities of the situation and your immediate actions to remedy them. "It is simply time for the shareholders to get paid, too. "I look forward to your response."
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Gunther
Von Hagen would have you think he is innocent
but by his own website and as a matter of record, "In 2001, he
founded a private company, the Von Hagens Dalian Plastination Ltd.,
in Dalian, China, which currently employs a staff of 250."
These two expose articles [in German with photos] are considered the
best article and research into Gunther Von Hagen and Sui Hongjin - Von
Hagen's former manager . 2005 Spiegel Article on Gunther Von Hagen
ABC
News Online - Father
of 'body parts' artist faces Nazi claims See more of this article below
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Seattle's Most Culturally Offensive Exhibit How did it happen? Nobody hopes it is true - that what was exhibited were executed prisoners but the fact is that everybody knew there was the possibility, some more than others. Who hosted this exhibit? Seattle Theater Group and the Museum of History and Industry. The Seattle Theater Group states they did a survey of the community a year prior to solicite feedback and comments. They claim they called former Govenor Gary Locke, the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the Asian Newspapers. Was it for feedback or to suppress opposition? We know from statements from Ron Chew former director of the Wing Luke Asian museum that they discussed possible protests by the Chinese community but next thing Ron Chew knows is the exhbit is in town. From that time on, the Chinese community has remained mysteriously silent. There also remains the fact that everybody knew the deceased never gave their consent. Scattle City Council, Schools, There was hardly a news report that did not mention this concern. Yet regardless visitors and schools came. The only evidence we saw of non-endorsement was the Washington State Convention Center refused to put out their brochures - likely because of the graphic nature.
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Museum
proprietors protest 'Bodies' show http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/290350_mystery28.html
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Seattle's
Most Culturally Offensive Exhibit But didn't know the
cadavers were unconsenting? Ask for a REFUND!
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| Boston: http://dignityinboston.googlepages.com Virtual Picket Line Durham: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2371668630 http://robinkirk.com/wordpress/archives/85 California: http://www.92122.blogspot.com Cincinnati OH: http://morristsai.com/2008/01/bodies-the-exhibition-dead-bod.html |
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Attention all cities with cadaver shows appearing or scheduled to open. Consider
ordinances or laws in your city preventing the display of human remains. News Congratulations!!!!
- Charlette LeFevre
and Philip Lipson ______________________________________________ .....On Thursday the California State Assembly voted 50 to 4 to approve legislation to ensure that the people whose remains are on display consented to be gawked at by the public. The bill next goes to the Senate. "Although plastination was intended to advance medicine and science, many entrepreneurs are using plastination to make outrageous profits by dissecting, mutilating and parading unwilled bodies around the world and in our state," the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), said during Assembly debate. "Asking for consent and verification is not too much to ask." _____________________________ ABC's Dan Noyez story
on their investigation http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=5896409 _________________________________________________________ Bodies
Banned in Russia
Elaine Catz, an 11-year
employee of the Carnegie Science Centerscience resigned over "Bodies''
"We don't know how these people died or why they died, and I don't think Premier knows, either," she said, referring to the company, Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, that is presenting the show. "Before we put our stamp of approval on it, there should be a high burden of proof on Premier.''...It was all too much for Ms. Catz, the Carnegie employee who resigned. She questions the provenance of the bodies, the trustworthiness of Chinese assurances and the place of cadaver exhibits in a civilized society. "There are a lot of so-called 'assurances' about this exhibit, but I'm not sure the Carnegie Institute investigated it far enough," said Ms. Catz, ,,, "Asking questions is the only way scientists learn anything, but you have to verify the sources," she said. "The science center is willing to accept the answer they want to hear, without verification, because they want this show to bring in the crowds. That, for me, is where they've strayed from their mission. I tried really hard to tell them that."...
Saturday, January 6, 2007
New
Development - 2/07 AN ACT Relating to the
commercial display of human remains; adding a new section to chapter
68.50 RCW; and prescribing penalties. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE
OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON: NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added
to chapter 68.50 RCW to read as follows: |
Please
be advised a District Court Complaint has been filed against Premier Exhibitions
in U.|S. Western District Court and is pending.
|
Why Cadaver Shows are Exploitive Abuses of Corpses First lets define these bodies as frankly cadavers. Who are we fooling? Even plastinization experts state these bodies may contain upto 30% tissue. Yup, tissue. That means not everything is plastic. Given the natural breakdown of tissue with bacteria, temperature change and movement, there is probably alot of tissue dust falling on the floor. Lets get the facts here
- Bodies: The Exhibiton does not have consent papers of the cadavers.
They admit they are unclaimed bodies, Not a single penny of
your ticket is going to help a person or child in need of an organ. Yeh, it might be cool
to see the insides of a person skinned and flayed, but at what cost? |
Arnie
Geller - CEO of Premier Exhibits, ScrewYou!
You are like a Nazi Bastard earning a six figure salary off exploiting
the skinned backs of the Chinese poor.
How low can you get?
How
low can supporters of this exhibit get?
There is a special place in hell reserved for people like
this who culturally desecrate
their fellow human being.
|
By their own admittance
in their ads Premier Exhibition uses real human bodies. By inherent international
guidelines it is a violation of human rights to desecrate We are requesting the State of Washington courts to find Premiere Exhibitions guilty of violating the spirit of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act which expressly prohibits the sale of human tissue for profit and violating local and federal privacy and decency laws and basic human rights by desecrating cadavers in violation of their cultural heritage. Whereas Premiere Exhibitions has demonstrated and acknowledged receiving revenue for the exchange of organs, tissue and cadavers, either by leasing, selling tickets and marketing for revenue, we believe Premiere Exhibitions should be found guilty of selling human tissue.Whereas the Chinese cadavers and organs are displayed contrary to the Chinese belief of burying the body whole, we believe Premier Exhibitions has desecrated the bodies. Whereas all the cadavers are displayed naked with full exposure of genitalia having been exhibited to minors, we believe Premier Exhibitions should be found to have violated local and federal decency and privacy laws. Whereas Premiere Exhibitions cannot show license and bonding for handling human tissue, organs and cadavers and cannot show a licensed medical physician representative, we believe Premier Exhibitions should be found have violated the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Whereas Premier Exhibitions claims they exhibit for entertainment and is not a medical, educational or non-profit and cannot show any single medical merit of transplantation, we believe Premier Exhibitions should be found guilty of acquiring human tissue, organs without just medical cause. Whereas Premiere Exhibitions has crossed state lines and developed and furthered a trade of organs, tissue and cadavers without the oversight of any medical organization or medical physician. Whereas Premiere Exhibitions currently trades stock under NASDAQ as PRXI Premier Exhibitions is a for profit investors corporation and exhibits for profit. We are requesting the State of Washington courts to find Premiere Exhibitions guilty of violating the spirit of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act which expressly prohibits the sale of human tissue for profit and violating local and federal privacy and decency laws and basic human rights by desecrating cadavers in violation of their cultural heritage. |
If you thought Desecrating a
person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is wrong - your right!
The truth of how human cadavers are being sold for
profit in Bodies: The Exhibition - a show of cadavers
marketed under the guise of education and how
Seattle is allowing a
violation of human rights and hosting the most
Internationally culturally offensive exhibit in Seattle's history.
The exhibit is not cool, its
crass.
Its dignified to NOT see this exhibit.
China officially admits executed
prisoners are the basis of organ trafficking - 11/17/2006
(see news below)
Quotes
"We're talking potentially about
thousands of people who have been drained, pumped with plastic, chopped up
like meat, and then served around the state for commercial purposes,"
- California Democratic Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, - to California Assembly, ABC
News Jan 25, 2008.
I'm
troubled by the fact the bodies are from China," "There are a lot of issues
there."
"My hands are tied"
- Ron Chew, executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum.
"From a cultural perspective, especially since
a number of the cadavers are from China, it feels like a gross violation,"
"The willful use of putting a body on indefinite display like that condemns
the soul to wander the netherworld with no chance to rest." - Bettie
Luke
"You just don't know what
kind of bodies you're getting from China because there's
not a lot of regulation. There's a lot of organ harvesting."
- Tan Truong, a Seattle practitioner of Falun Gong - Seattle
PI, Thur. Sept. 28, 2006.
"There seems to be a presumption
that if you have unclaimed bodies you
have carte blanche to do whatever you please with them," he said. "In their
lifetime, some of these
people might have been horrified by being put on display like this." - Rabbi
Danny Schiff
...³any activity that transgresses
an individual's human rights or involves the coercion of an individual to
become an organ donor² must be condemned. ³The alleged use of organs from executed
prisoners
without consent [for financial gain] is [. . .] a breach of human rights and
is an unacceptable practice.²
- Stephen Wigmore, chairman of the British Transplantation Society Ethics Committee
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies), April 20, 2006
..egregious human rights abuse...
- Michael E. Parmly, Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
|
Consumer
Alert! on Bodies: The Exhibiton Get the Facts: |
| 1. Promoters are not stating to visitors that the 21 cadavers the exhbit are Chinese and cannot show consent papers. It is felt that if consumers knew the bodies they were looking at did not consent to be displayed to the public and is culturally offensive to the Chinese, they might reconsider attending. Consumers should realize that purchasing a ticket is furthing the trade and exploitation of these cadavers, furthering the cultural offense and supporting this trade. |
| 2. Note that no U.S. physician has endorsed this exhibit. Dr. Roy Glover who is listed as “Chief Medical Advisor” for “Bodies: The Exhibition” is a retired professor of Anatomy from the Univ. of Michigan and is NOT a physician or medical doctor. The Directors also encourage anyone who has already seen the show and if they were not informed of the lack of consent of the cadavers in the exhibit’s advertisement and felt they were misled, to ask for a refund. |
It always amazes me how people try and justfity
this exhbiit.
But their dead right? Let me spell it
out for you...
Desecrating a person's body against
their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
But its educational!
Desecrating a person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
But thousands of people have seen this exhibit...
Desecrating a person's body
against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
But they were unclaimed bodies
Desecrating a person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
But its cool
Desecrating a person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
But it brings in millions of dollars...
Desecrating a person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG!
The bottom line is these cadavers exhibits
are just WRONG.
They are culturally offensive and will always be culturally offensive.
When was unconsenting
ever legal not to mention ethical? Consent should not be a debate issue!
Our
Bodies, Ourselves: Consent is crucial
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Consent, how important is it?
We teach our kids at an early age
to not let strangers touch their bodies and their private parts.
We have consent laws which allow legal organ and blood donation here in the
U.S. on our drivers license.
We have decency and privacy laws. What are we teaching our children when we
take them to an exhibit that exploits a cultural group with desecrated cadavers
stripped naked who when living would never have wanted to be displayed in this
manner in direct contrast to their culture? That its ok to be culturally offensive
for the sake of education?
The Directors of the Seattle Museum
of the Mysteries Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson
have filed a federal complaint on the basis that exhibitors do not have consent
papers
citing the statement of Dr. Lynn Romrell Ph.D. Executive Director of the Anatomical
Board of the State of Florida
and the city of San Francisco's ordinance prohibiting the display of human remains
without authorization or consent. The
Directors have requested Seattle City Council to adopt San Francisco's ordinance
before the exhibit opened Sept. 30th but the Council to date has refused to
even look at the ordinance.
Additionally a formal complaint
has been sent by the Directors to Amnesty International.
As the exhibitors admit these cadavers are unconsenting and cannot prove their
identities and were not
political prisoners, visitors may unknowingly be furthering a human rights violation
and violation of the Geneva Convention.
Teacher recommendations. Review
the diffent cultures around the world and their burial customs, the burial rites
and ethics in medicine. Find out about our consent laws and the Uniform Anatomical
Gift Act, even the Geneva Convention. (rules posted below).
|
Media
Request - No display of Culturally offensive Cadaver Photos and Ads.
Desecrating a person's body against their cultural belief for Profit is WRONG! |
|
Already saw the exhibit?
Ask for a REFUND! Why? Every penny you
gave them furthers this type of human trafficking.
|
Seattle is allowing a
violation of human rights and hosting the most Internationally culturally offensive
exhibit in Seattle's history. Ask yourself, if this is any different than what
the Nazi's did to Jews by using medical experimentation to justify their abuse?
I
"I thought its illegal to sell, trade
and receive undonated or unconsenting body parts in the U.S., even if you are
an artist or physician."
- Charlette LeFevre
Bodies, unless my moral compass has gone wildly off course, is the greatest affront to human dignity, the greatest insult to the dead and the rights of their loved ones, that we, in a voyeuristic culture, have ever seen. - Norman Lebrecht, April 11, 2006..... Full Article
Cities and areas that have banned or vetoed the exhibit: or similar types of exhibits.
Ft. Lauderdale by Mayor Jim Naugle
San Francisco - by ordinance 222-05 initiated by City Supervisor Fiona Ma which
bans the exhibit of human remains without consent from the deceased.
News Articles:
Falun Gong and Organ Harvesting
State
Department - Sale of Chinese Organs
Michael E. Parmly, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Hearing Before the Subcommittee on International
Operations and Human Rights, House International Relations Washington, DC June
27, 2001
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2001/3792.htm
In the months ahead, we will continue to make clear our strong opposition to the repugnant practice of coercive organ harvesting and will press the Government of China to ensure its organ transplant policies and practices are in compliance with international human rights norms as well as international medical practices.
State
Department - State's Parmly on Sale of Human Organs in China (Parmly calls
practice "egregious human rights abuse")
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau for Democracy, Human
Rights and Labor Michael E. Parmly testified before members of Congress June
27 about what the State Department is doing to put an end to "the repugnant
practice of coercive organ harvesting" and trafficking in organs that occurs
in China.
David Matas (left) and David Kilgour (right) at the press conference, Parliament
Hill, Ottawa, Canada, July 6, 2006
Mattas and David Kilgour Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun
Gong Practioners in China
Christian
Science Monitor - China faces suspicions about organ
harvesting
OTTAWA: David Matas, international human rights
lawyer, and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada,
today released an independent report, following their two-month inquiry into
allegations that vital organs are being seized from Falun Gong practitioners
across China.
http://investigation.go.saveinter.net/
"We
believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures
from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."
Amnesty International - Fact Sheet on Falun Gong
China Digital Times - Former Beijing policeman Sun Liyong says he knows the methods used by Chinese authorities to harvest body parts from prisoners.
AsiaNewsIT
- China officially admits executed prisoners are the basis of organ trafficking
- 11/17/2006
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7771#
Health authorities acknowledge the problem for
the first time. They also recognise the existence of an organ black market but
deny public officials are involved, blaming instead surgeons, who in turn, refute
such allegations.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) China¹s government has admitted that an illegal
traffic in human organs for transplant actually exists, but blamed it on the
work of rogue surgeons. For this reason, it has called on the members of the
profession to adhere to a ³code of conduct².
Addressing a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou yesterday, Deputy Health Minister
Huang Jiefu acknowledged that most organs harvested come from executed prisoners.
He insisted that informed consent must inform organ harvesting, that donation
be voluntary and done with the consent of donors or their families. ³The harvesting,
distribution and use of organs must be closely tracked under responsible supervision
by related administrations,² Mr Huang said. ³Under-the-table business must be
banned,² Mr Huang said cognizant that too often organs come from non consenting
parties and are sold for high fees to foreigners.....
AsiaNewsIT
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5955
Transplant
organs removed without executed prisoners¹ consent British group charges doctors
and authorities are involved in the lucrative business. Many are concerned that
demand for organs leads to executions. Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) The British
Transplantation Society (BTS) announced yesterday that an ³accumulating body
of evidence suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed
for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their
family.² The situation is such that China has become the main supplier of transplant
organs, involving transplant centres, patients, and the authorities and judiciary
responsible for the prisoners in a very lucrative business.
For Stephen Wigmore, chairman of the BTS Ethics Committee, ³any activity that
transgresses an individual's human rights or involves the coercion of an individual
to become an organ donor² must be condemned. ³The alleged use of organs from
executed prisoners without consent [for financial gain] is [. . .] a breach
of human rights and is an unacceptable practice.²
Beijing: new health rules to stem organ trafficking
http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=6729
Beijing (AsiaNews) The Chinese government has approved a series of new regulations governing the use and transport of corpses and human organs with the aim of preventing illegal trade. The new rules will enter into force on 1 August 2006.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Our Bodies,
Ourselves: Consent is crucial
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Critics of an exhibition of human bodies have put a finger on something intangible
and important: consent. Lawmakers here, in Olympia and Washington, D.C., ought
to pay attention to the growing controversies that are developing as for-profit
exhibits of dead Chinese men, women and fetuses spread around the country. The
unease many feel is appropriate. We respect the stated goals of various exhibiters
to educate the public about the wonder of the human body and the need to take
care of it. (The Seattle P-I is a sponsor of "Bodies ... The Exhibition" here.)
But the exhibits traveling around the United States have offered little or no
documentation that, during their lives, the people whose bodies are on display
gave permission for such an exhibition.
As the P-I has reported, Atlanta-based Premiere Exhibitions, which brought cadavers
here, has said its contract with a Chinese university guarantees the bodies
are not from political or religious prisoners. Given the anemic state of China's
legal system and the government's weak human rights record, it would be only
modestly more reassuring if the group made the contracts public. But anyone
deserves say about whether his or her body is shown. Last year, San Francisco
passed a law requiring proof of consent for such exhibits and empowered health
officials to judge the evidence. Seattle City Council, the Legislature and Congress
should also demand respect for the wishes of the dead.
Seattle PI - Museum
Proprietors protest Bodies show
Seattle Ti mes - All
Laid Bare in Bodies Exhibit
Seattle
Times - Medical Examiner to inspect Bodies used in new Exhibit
Florida
Board attempt to stop exhibit
San
Francisco's ABC News - New Deadline for Human Body Exhibit
San
Francisco's ABC News - Protestors Boycott Human Corpse Exhibit
The Guardian - Von Hagen forced to return Controversial Corpses to China
www.laogai.org - Laogai Research Foundation
|
Seattle Cadavers Nazi Connection Fact: The Dalian China plant where the
Seattle cadavers were plastinated was established by the Institute of
Plastination in which Gerhard Liebchen was once a board member - a Nazi
SS officer who served in WWII during 1939-1941. Gerhard Liebchen is the
father of Gunther Von Hagen whos real name is Gunther Liebchen. Gunther
took his first wife's name VonHagen it is believed to hide the fact his
father was a Nazi SS officer. Gunther Von Hagen is the originator of this
plastination process and currently owns the plant in Dalian China. Spiegel - Family's Nazi Secret Haunts
'Body Worlds' Founder When contacted by DER SPIEGEL about his past last week, von Hagens's father, 88-year-old Gerhard Liebchen, said that he could not "make statements in an appropriate way about complex circumstances of events 60 years past." Complex indeed. The documents suggest Liebchen was an active participant in the campaign against the Polish population after the Nazis invaded in 1939. They show that he served not only as a Nazi activist, but also as a member of the feared SS between the years of 1939-40 and in 1942. The papers portray a man who was more than keen to toe the Nazi party line. Liebchen, the son of a German railway worker, grew up as part of the German minority in Poland in the city of Skalmierzyce, then known as Alt Skalden. As a young man, he became politically active among the region's German ethnic minority and was even jailed by Polish officials after participating in a political gathering in 1939. Many feel von Hagens violates the dignity
of the dead. The Guardian - The controversial German anatomist Gunther von Hagens last night agreed to return seven corpses to China after admitting that the bodies used in his exhibitions might have come from executed prisoners. ....."I can't prove the bodies weren't executed, but I believe they weren't." He said he received his bodies from Chinese officials but could not be sure of their origins. He said he only discovered last week that seven corpses in his collection had head injuries. The fedora-wearing scientist now lives in the Chinese city of Dalian and employs 200 people to dissect and preserve corpses at a centre. The centre is close to three prison camps, which are home to political detainees and members of the banned Falun Gong movement. According to Amnesty International, China's communist authorities executed 2,468 people in 2001 by shooting them in the head or the back of the neck..... ABC
News Online - Father
of 'body parts' artist faces Nazi claims |
Secret Origins of Bodies
Novosti - Russian News and Information Agency - Siberian Court upholds Verdict against corpse-smuggling professor. NOVOSIBIRSK, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - A Siberian court rejected on Friday the appeal of a medical professor convicted of smuggling dozens of corpses to a controversial German anatomist. The presidium of the Novosibirsk regional court in western Siberia upheld the verdict of a lower court against Vladimir Novosyolov, who headed the region's forensic medical examination bureau. The professor, who denies charges of smuggling bodies to German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, had appealed against the lower court's verdict...
Mysterious Find
Chicago
Tribune - ....But there is a vulnerable population in Kyrgyzstan: prisoners,
mental-asylum inmates and impoverished people who die in hospitals. Two years
ago, Akbokon Tashtanbekov, then a member of parliament, began hearing complaints
from his constituents about missing relatives. Tashtanbekov said in a recent
phone interview that he didn't believe the stories at first, but he visited
the Kyrgyz State Medical Academy in Bishkek, where bodies were prepared at the
plastination center. Employees told him the bosses were away and denied him
entry.
Then one night as he was passing the academy, he saw that the lights were on
inside. He climbed through a window and found himself in a morgue with 110 barrels
of human organs and 217 entire corpses stored in refrigerators or immersed in
special basins. Tashtanbekov halted the work and sealed off the building to
stop employees from removing anything. According to his figures, the academy
had obtained more than 800 dead bodies from prisons, psychiatric wards and hospitals,
which hadn't always notified the families. Eighteen or 19 children were among
them, Tashtanbekov says. "The oldest was 6 years old; the youngest one was only
14 hours old." Prisons allegedly sold bodies for $13 to $15 apiece.
One Kyrgyz resident, Raisa Gerasimenko, will never know what became of her son,
Dmitry. Gerasimenko, 65, said in a telephone interview that she received a telegram
in 1998 from a psychiatric hospital stating that her brain-damaged son had died.
When she tried to pick up the body, she was told it had been sent to the medical
academy.
"I was asking them, 'Please give me at least one of his bones, and I'll bury
it next to my husband. I'll be crying there for both of them.' But I've gotten
nothing." Another missing body is that of Kishinbek Mamakiev, a 71-year-old
resident of Bishkek. One night in 2000, he collapsed in the street from a brain
hemorrhage while out for a walk, says his brother, Narynbai. He died in a hospital.
His family, however, weren't told of his fate, Narynbai says. They spent three
years visiting hospitals and morgues and even placing ads on television. Then,
in 2003, they received a call from Tashtanbekov, who said he had found Kishinbek
Mamakiev's name in the morgue of the medical academy's plastination center.
"They took some organs from him and then they buried him, together with another
10 or 20 discarded people," says Narynbai.
One Kyrgyz official told reporters that about
a third of the specimens provided by Kyrgyz psychiatric hospitals went to "Body
Worlds," and others claim to recognize Kyrgyz features in some of the short-statured
figures in "Body Worlds."...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-0507310429jul31,1,3790747.story?page=4&coll=chi-health-utl
Comments
"This Seattle exhibit is deeply flawed," Aaron Ginsburg, a pharmacist from Massachusetts, wrote in an e-mail to the Seattle P-I. "The bodies were not donated, and may well have belonged to political prisoners. China is not a nation of laws, and any assurances that the bodies were legally obtained is meaningless."- - Seattle PI, Thur. Sept. 28, 2006.
"I'm troubled by the fact the bodies are
from China," said Ron Chew, executive director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum.
"There are a lot of issues there." ...
"From a cultural perspective, especially since a number of the cadavers are
from China, it feels like a gross violation," said Bettie Luke, who works with
various Seattle Chinese American groups. "The willful use of putting a body
on indefinite display like that condemns the soul to wander the netherworld
with no chance to rest."...
Tan Truong, a Seattle practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China, also is worried about the origin of the cadavers. Though Truong admits there's no proof the bodies are those of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners or other enemies of the Communist government, he said, "You just don't know what kind of bodies you're getting from China because there's not a lot of regulation. There's a lot of organ harvesting." - Seattle PI, Thur. Sept. 28, 2006.
Chinese-Americans began protesting the San Francisco show, and unlike von Hagens, organizers could not defuse the anger by claiming that the bodies were those of donors. Fiona Ma, a member of the San Francisco board of supervisors, called for a ban on such exhibitions if the bodies are not documented as donors who agreed to be displayed in for-profit shows...."In the Chinese culture they have great respect for the dead and superstition about dead bodies and death. And so I know they would never consent to have their bodies displayed like this, in such a manner," says Ma. "It's really kind of disgusting. The bodies are all chopped up. The skin is all flaring out." _ Fiona Ma, San Francisco City Supervisor on a similar exhibit, July 31, 2005, Chicago Tribune.
The 1987 Unified Antatomical Gift
Act explicitly prohibited the sale of human organs.
Federal law expressly prohibits the sale of human tissue with the exception
of blood, sperm, or human eggs.
Additionally, the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) expressly forbids
the selling of human organs across state lines.
Are federal laws being broken by marketing and promoting unconsenting or undonated
human remains?
The 1987 Unified Antatomical Gift Act explicitly prohibites the sale of human
organs. Federal law expressly prohibits the sale of human tissue with the exception
of blood, sperm, or human eggs. The exhibit which is comprised of 21 Chinse
unconsenting cadavers and over 200 organ parts is marketed to the public for
revenue by Premiere Exhibitions
Because these cadavers in Seattle are admittedly unidentified and may be political prisoners or prisoners of consciousness as Falun Gong practioners, there may be a violation of the Geneva Convention in the treatement of dead bodies.
Articles of the Geneva Convention
http://www.genevaconventions.org/
Art. 11 - Protection of persons
1. The physical or mental health and integrity of persons who are in the power
of the adverse Party or who are interned, detained or otherwise deprived of
liberty as a result of a situation referred to in Article 1 shall not be endangered
by any unjustified act or omission. Accordingly, it is prohibited to subject
the persons described in this Article to any medical procedure which is not
indicated by the state of health of the person concerned and which is not consistent
with generally accepted medical standards which would be applied under similar
medical circumstances to persons who are nationals of the Party conducting the
procedure and who are in no way deprived of liberty.
2. It is, in particular, prohibited to carry out on
such persons, even with their consent: (a) physical mutilations; (b) medical
or scientific experiments; (c) removal
of tissue or organs for transplantation, except where these acts are justified
in conformity with the conditions provided for in paragraph 1.
3. Exceptions to the prohibition in paragraph 2 (c) may be made only in the
case of donations of blood for transfusion or of skin for grafting, provided
that they are given voluntarily and without any coercion or inducement, and
then only for therapeutic purposes, under conditions consistent with generally
accepted medical standards and controls designed for the benefit of both the
donor and the recipient.
4. Any wilful act or omission which seriously endangers the physical or mental
health or integrity of any person who is in the power of a Party other than
the one on which he depends and which either violates any of the prohibitions
in paragraphs 1 and 2 or fails to comply with the requirements of paragraph
3 shall be a grave breach of this Protocol.
5. The persons described in paragraph 1 have the right to refuse any surgical
operation. In case of refusal, medical personnel shall endeavour to obtain a
written statement to that effect, signed or acknowledged by the patient.
6. Each Party to the conflict shall keep a medical record for every donation
of blood for transfusion or skin for grafting by persons referred to in paragraph
1, if that donation is made under the responsibility of that Party. In addition,
each Party to the conflict shall endeavour to keep a record of all medical procedures
undertaken with respect to any person who is interned, detained or otherwise
deprived of liberty as a result of a situation referred to in Article 1. These
records shall be available at all times for inspection by the Protecting Power.
_________________
Burial of the dead must be carried out individually if possible and must be
preceded by a careful examination in order to confirm death and establish identity.
The burials should be honorable and, if possible,
according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged.
Graves must be properly maintained, with adequate record keeping, so that they
may be found later. (Convention III, Art. 120)
Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment,
enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault is prohibited at any
time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilians or military
personnel. (Protocol I, Art. 75)
Prisoners of war must be humanely treated at all times. Any
unlawful act which causes death or seriously endangers the health of a prisoner
of war is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. In particular, prisoners
must not be subject to physical mutilation, biological experiments, violence,
intimidation, insults, and public curiosity. (Convention III, Art. 13)
In the case of missing or dead persons, the main guiding principles for the
parties to a conflict and for international humanitarian organizations is the
right of families to know the fates of their relatives. (Protocol I, Art. 32)
Civilians must not be coerced to donate blood or skin grafts. (Protocol I, Art.
11, Sec. 3)
Mothers with dependent infants should not be, if at all possible, sentenced
to the death penalty for an offense related to the armed conflict, and such
sentences must not be carried out. (Protocol I, Art. 76, Sec. 3)
Unidentified Chinese Cadavers
Be Afraid, be Very Afraid.
Seattle will soon be receiving on Sept. 30 th across from the Washington State
Convention Center 21 cadavers embalmed in a plastination process and admitted
over 200 diseased body parts. So what is the controversy other than a for profit
corporation will be getting a high traffic, high profile exhibit spot as opposed
to a Seattle artist? These cadavers are all Chinese and unconsenting. Funny,
the promoters are not mentioning this in their advertisement to visitors. Not
surprisingly, if visitors knew these little facts, it would likely effect their
decision to buy a ticket. The public has a right to know who they are looking
at right?
Apparently Chinese believe in burying their dead whole so its likely these bodies
came from political prisoners who ³happened² to have died suddenly in prison.
A bit disturbing giving the display of a family member cut open, naked and in
a phony pose is not something the Chinese would ever do. This is being put on
by the Seattle Theater Group and Premiere Exhibitions out of Atlanta and is
called "Bodies: The Exhibition".
The facts are nobody knows who these cadavers are or what they died of and hence
their potential health risk to the public yet. Parents, be afraid. San Francisco
health officials in 2005 have studied leaking body fluids from similar cadavers
from China and identified the liquid as organic material. ABC news crew in San
Fancisco state they¹ve seen liquid pooling under these open air cadavers they
verified in their own lab as liquified body fat. As a result of this similar
cadaver exhibit and public outcry they enacted an ordinace banning the display
of human remains without authorized consent. Ft. Lauderdale also said no to
these exhibits. So why is Seattle getting what San Francisco and other major
cities just banned last year?
Because the promoters are being sneaky and notified certain people weeks ago
as a public outreach. It appears from accredited news sources such as the New
York Times, NPR and Forbes, and numerous articles readily available on the internet
these exhibits have a way of sneaking into cities and using their visitor count
and revenue generation as justification for exhibiting cadavers. I¹ve contacted
the promoter Seattle Theater Group and all they say they have is a signature
from a physician in China saying everything is legal and the identities are
private and not for the public. This is side-stepping at its best.
Ask yourself how can this be given we have strict laws on the selling and recieving
of body parts, customs, terrorism laws and even fruit import? Not to mention
biohazard risk this may pose to the public from cadavers from a country known
for SARS and Avian Flu. Nobody yet in Seattle can seem to verify the identities
of these cadavers how they died or cause of death.
The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries has forwarded an ordinance request to the
entire Seattle City Council to adopt an ordinance prohibiting the display of
human remains without authorization or consent, similar to what San Francisco
did in 2005. To date no acceptance of this ordinance. In our opinion, this is
an afront to all our health and security measures not to mention a cultural
offense to anyone of Chinese background. I encourage people to investigate this
mystery as there is alot more information available readily on the internet
and call the promoters and see if you get any satisfactory answers. They are
after all implying this exhibit is safe for the public and "educational".
Then call your officials, your mayor, King County Dept. of Health and ask them
why they are allowing an exhibit of unidentified unconsenting naked cadavers
in undignified poses in a public exhibit space and selling tickets to children?
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Seattle Theater Group
- Bodies: The Exhibition hosts here in Seattle - 206-381-0910 Amnesty International
- http://www.amnestyusa.org/contact/ Find out more information
|
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Sign a National
Petition to stop these undignified exhibits: |
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Candlight Vigil Halloween Night remembering the lives of the cadavers inside.
W
...
The General Manager of Bodies: The Exhibit
and a person identifying himself as a Paramount employee removing free speech
protest flyers.
Staff repeatedly sneak out and take down freedom of speech flyers and mop up
chalk signage.
Attention all Seattle Theater Group Staffing!
You may be asked by your employer to sneak out and take down freedom of speech
flyers and mop up chalk signage on the city owned sidewalk.
Frankly, this is pathetic. Be advised you can/will be held responsible for your
own actions.
If this is against your ethics and contrary to your job description, obviously,
you have the right to tell your supervisor NO
and you feel uncomfortable. If you incur any retaliation, obviously,
you have a right to call Labor and Industries
and file a complaint.
Former employees have quit. Ask yourself why?
Additionally, the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) expressly forbids
the selling of human organs across state lines.
_________
Additional information and comments: The Directors have filed a Federal Complaint
regarding this Seattle Cadaver Exhibit filed against Premier Exhibitions Case
No. 06-1490 in U.S. District Court Western District of Washington in Seattle
on Oct. 13, 2006 regarding their exhibit of unconsenting cadavers. The Directors
cite the U.S. Anatomical Gift Act which explicitly prohibits the sale of human
tissue. The complaint also cited a statement by Dr. Lynn Romrell Ph.D. Executive
Director of the Anatomical Board of the State of Florida in which he states
the board rejected the same exhibit last year based on the fact that Premiere
Exhibitions could not show consent papers were obtained from the deceased. San
Francisco last year banned this same type of exhibit enacting ordinance prohibiting
the display of human remains without authorization or consent upon request of
the Chinese community.
In our request we cite several comments from the local Chinese community:
The Directors also stated they feel Premier Exhibitions is misleading the public
by not stating in their advertisement the bodies are all unconsenting Chinese
cadavers. The Directors believe visitors have the right to know the facts to
decide for themselves as they believe the public would think twice about purchasing
a ticket in which they would be viewing unconsenting bodies and furthering this
type of trade of human body parts. Premier Exhibitions is a for profit company
and is not a medical or educational institution.
....This
is not consent
Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson want to know how Seattle ended up
with an exhibit such as "Bodies." (October 28, 2006) . Photo by Meryl
Schenker/Seattle Post-Intelligencer 