NPR reporter Neda Ulaby filed this report August 10, 2006 on All Things Considered. Her title: Cadaver Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow indicates some of the problem with the exhibit.
"...The shows, featuring corpses that have been preserved and solidified through a process called plastination, have been wildly successful. But they also have been dogged by criticism.
"One delicate ethical concern stands out above all the others: whether the bodies were legitimately obtained. Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the inventor of plastination and the impresario behind the Body Worlds exhibitions, says that every whole body exhibited in North America comes from fully informed European and American donors, who gave permission, in writing, for their bodies to be displayed. The science museums that have hosted Body Worlds also make this assurance.
"'What I certainly never use for public exhibitions are unclaimed bodies, prisoners, bodies from mental institutions and executed prisoners,' von Hagens says."
According to reporter Ulaby, "Chinese medical schools supply von Hagens with unclaimed bodies, which he plastinates and sells to universities. Von Hagens used to take cadavers from the former Soviet Union, but he stopped after body-trafficking scandals in Russia and the Kyrgyz Republic."
Given the recent Olympic Chinese gymnast scandal, China cannot be trusted with their paper trails. AP reporter Nancy Armour stated that previous lists on the website of the General Administration of Sport of China in 2004, 2005 and 2006 poated both athletes in question - He and Yang - with birth dates that made them ineligible. According to those lists, He was born January 1, 1994. Yang was born August 26, 1993. In 2007, Yang's birthdate changed to August 26, 1992. But back to this cadaver controversy and NPR reporter Ulaby.
"Five years ago, customs officers intercepted 56 bodies and hundreds of brain samples sent from the Novosibirsk Medical Academy to von Hagens' lab in Heidelberg, Germany. The cadavers were traced to a Russian medical examiner who was convicted last year of illegally selling the bodies of homeless people, prisoners and indigent hospital patients."Von Hagens was not charged with any wrongdoing, and says his cadavers are obtained only through proper legal and ethical channels.
"Dr. von Hagens also plastinates and sells many hundreds of unclaimed bodies obtained from Chinese medical schools for educational purposes. He says that he obtains them all only through trusted sources, but no outsider has verified that they might not be, in a worst-case scenario, dissidents killed in a Chinese prison, then sold through a body broker to a medical school, and then displayed to the public.
"Still, NPR has learned there's no clear paper trail from willing donors to exhibited bodies. People donating their bodies to von Hagens send consent forms to his Institute for Plastination. They pay to have their bodies transported to a plastination facility. There, their donor forms and death certificates are checked.
"That paperwork is then separated from the bodies, which can be used for displays or sold in pieces to medical schools. No one will know for sure, because each plastinated corpse is made anonymous to protect its privacy.
"Hans Martin Sass, a philosophy professor with a speciality in ethics, was hired by the California Science Center to investigate Body Worlds before the show's U.S. debut in 2004. He matched over 200 donation forms to death certificates, but he did not match the paperwork to specific bodies von Hagens has on display.
"Body Worlds should not be confused with its competitor, BODIES... The Exhibition. Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds is now in St. Paul, Minn., Houston and Boston. BODIES... The Exhibition is in Tampa, Fla., Atlanta, Las Vegas and New York City.
"Roy Glover, spokesman for BODIES... The Exhibition, says its cadavers -- all from China -- did not come from willing donors.
"'They're unclaimed,' Glover says. 'We don't hide from it, we address it right up front.'
For that reason, many venues will not display BODIES... The Exhibition. Groups such as the Laogai Research Foundation, which documents human rights abuse in China, have charged that the category of unclaimed bodies in China includes executed political prisoners.
"When BODIES... The Exhibition opened first in Tampa, Fla., last summer, the state anatomical board requested documentation proving the corpses were ethically obtained. Dr. Lynn Romrell, who chairs the board, says it got only a letter from the show's Chinese plastinator asserting that they were.
"He stated that none of the material came from criminal institutions or homes from the mentally insane. But just his word on that, no documents," Romrell says.
"Romrell wanted to close the exhibition down, but says the state anatomical board lacked the authority.
"The owner of Body Worlds says each body he displays can be accounted for, but he is unwilling to make public a complete paper trail. His competition, BODIES... The Exhibition, relies on documentation from a country with a problematic human rights record. Even at best, its exhibitors say the bodies were not formally donated by people who agreed to be displayed.
Despite questions about the two exhibitions, both continue to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors around the country, and some museums are even thinking about adding plastinates to their permanent collections.
"Signs at the exhibition's entrance stated that the bodies had been voluntarily donated under the auspices of the Institute for Plastination. Well, what was that? Looking into the shows, I learned the IFP was another arm of Dr. von Hagens' buisness empire. In other words, Dr. von Hagens was basically tasked with ensuring that Dr. von Hagens' exhibition was ethical and legitimate.
"NPR learned that the Franklin Institute and similar science centers around North America that have hosted Body Worlds relied on research commissioned by the California Science Center when it first brought the show to the United States in 2004. (This was done by Hans-Martin Sass, who appears in my story.) That research verified that there is a pool of some two hundred death certificates that matched donor forms. But as I looked into the story, I found that no independent observer has matched those documents to the bodies on display. That means there is no clear paper trail from a deceased donor to a finished plastinate.
"Nor has an independent observer ensured that the unclaimed Chinese bodies von Hagens uses in his medical-school-supply business are not turning up on display in the Body Worlds shows. Again, von Hagens categorically declares that he obtains his cadavers ethically; the point here is that the U.S. science centers who have put the bodies on display have conveyed the impression that an independent verification of this has been made.
"Besides the original ethical review, the science centers involved have also reassured patrons that they've turned to "ethics panels" or "advisory boards" of local clerics and academics to ensure that the bodies displayed have spotless ethical pedigrees. But after I interviewed scores of people at various science musuems, it became clear those boards hadn't been asked to seriously engage with the shows' ethical pitfalls. Instead, the board members were more or less charged with marketing the shows to their respective communities."
"For example, he'd been a political prisoner himself in the former East Germany. Or that there's a German horror movie, Anatomie, inspired by his plastinates. Or that von Hagens once danced while costumed as a plastinate in Berlin's famous Love Parade. In Europe some of von Hagens' publicity stunts reveled in sexuality, but his strategy in the United States. has been considerably more subdued. "
2 comments:
Budding reporters wishing to learn the anatomy of media bias need look no further than Neda Ulaby’s series on public anatomical exhibitions or “cadaver shows,” as she insists on calling them. In her broadcasts and Reporter’s Notebook (NPR, All Things Considered, Aug 11-12) she plays fast and loose with principles of journalism, such as the discipline of verification and the identification of sources.
In “Origins of Exhibited Cadavers Questioned,” where the lone voice questioning the origins of the specimens in Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS is Ulaby herself, she states that though the donor death certificates have been matched with donor forms by renowned ethicist, Dr. Hans Martin Sass, “there’s no clear paper trail from willing donors to exhibited bodies.” On the contrary, there is a very clear paper trail between deceased donors and plastinated specimens that falls within the bounds of medical confidentiality. The Institute for Plastination has made as much donor information as possible available to museum lawyers and bio-ethicists, without violating the code of medical confidentiality. We will reveal the same information willingly to any legitimate government authority with jurisdiction in Germany that also honors medical confidentiality. “[Dr. von Hagens] says each body he displays can be accounted for, but he is unwilling to make public a complete paper trail,” Ulaby reports. Her objection appears to be that the Institute for Plastination does not release confidential medical information to the media. We have learned from the past about reporters’ lack of discernment about matters of privacy. Before Dr. von Hagens conducted a public autopsy in London, the relatives of the deceased man, whose body was to be autopsied, reassured journalists that their father had agreed to the procedure but asked that his name be withheld. Several of the reporters broke their agreement and revealed the man’s identity. We learned too from the case of Paul Jernigan, the death penalty inmate who was executed in Texas, and his body used for the "Visible Human Project." Many journalists stalked Jernigan’s family to get their stories, without any regard for the family’s grief. We are acutely sensitive to the fact that the donors willed only their post mortal bodies for the education of many—not their personal lives, case histories, or any other aspect of their earthly lives—and will not violate the code of medical confidentiality to satisfy reporters’ curiosity.
Ulaby, as prosecutor, decides that Dr. von Hagens -- an anatomist who invented Plastination in 1977 at the University of Heidelberg to improve medical education for his students -- is guilty of using executed Chinese prisoners in the BODY WORLDS exhibitions until he proves himself innocent. “He says that he obtains them all only through trusted sources, but no outsider has verified that they might not be, in a worst case scenario, dissidents killed in a Chinese prison, then sold through a body broker to a medical school, and then displayed to the public,” she reports. The onus apparently is on Dr. von Hagens -- the only anatomist presenting an anatomical exhibition, the only presenter of anatomical exhibitions with a body donation program of more than 8,500 donors, nearly all of them European -- to prove that the specimens in his exhibitions “might not be, in a worst case scenario, dissidents killed in a Chinese prison, then sold through a body broker to a medical school, and then displayed to the public.” Ulaby has no problem, however, with copycat exhibits that use only unclaimed and found bodies from China, have no donor programs, and do not have a paper trail, let alone documents. “Critics say that at best those bodies probably belonged to people too poor to have been buried properly.” In other words, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, a 33 year career anatomist with an established donor program of mostly German donors, must prove that he does not use executed Chinese prisoners in his exhibit, while publicly traded exhibition companies that use only unclaimed and found Chinese bodies are exempt from Ulaby’s suspicions. This is not simply journalistic bias, it smacks of bigotry.
Currently, there is no national or international law or ethical imperative of informed consent for anatomical specimens. In fact, the majority of anatomical specimens in the world originate from unclaimed bodies. In Maryland, for example, any unclaimed body is by law handed over to the State Anatomical Board, embalmed and distributed for a fee to anatomical institutes around the country. Even in Great Britain under the supervision of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Anatomy (presently Dr. Jeremy Metters), human plastinates are not tracked. Skeletons are sold freely in all countries and are even available via the Internet. Compared to plastinates, these skeletons consist of 100 percent human tissue (plastinates are around 30 percent) and there is no international standard of informed consent. Dr. Gunther von Hagens conceived the world’s first and only body donation program for Plastination to uphold no one else’s standards but his own.
For more information:
www.bodyworlds.com
For ethics report:
http://www.koerperwelten.de/Downloads/ethics_summary.pdf
-Institute for Plastination and BODY WORLDS, Office for Body Donation
Boy, they ARE worried about the criticism aren't they? Its much more complex than the Institute would like you to understand. For instance, unclaimed bodies most often are NOT used for plastination OR for medical study. This is because most states are civilized enough to have a waiting period for unclaimed bodies so that families can be found. In this time they deteriorate and become unusable specimens for study. Especially true with plastination. Bodies need to be really freshly dead for this process. There IS a big difference between legitimate medical study and these grotesque displays, however. Ethical oversight. See also Lucia Tanassi's (Vanderbilt Univ) professional investigation as an ethicist. You hit the nail right on the head, Lend Me Your Ears, and the post by the Institute referenced the problem as well. They admit openly that there are no regulations, so why should they be concerned - ? They don't need to comply with the kinds of standards for, say, an anatomy lab. They don't care and they don't have to. They found a VERY lucrative loophole. And Von Hagens is NOT off the hook from an 'unclaimed' bodies perspective. He used 'unclaimed' Chinese bodies to open this whole market and realize his grotesque vision. He's a vampire and a ghoul.
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