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8 Quick facts about the shows
The industry
1. There are several corpse shows touring the world in an industry estimated to be £250 million.
2. The two main companies involved are the Institute for Plastination, which, under the supervision of Dr von Hagens, secures and manufactures corpses for his Body Worlds exhibitions, and Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, which has leased corpses from China to use in its USA touring shows "Bodies: the Exhibition".
3. Chinese and German factories use production lines to prepare the majority of corpses for shows (peeling skins-slicing and baking bodies into unusual poses-dancing, holding own brain in hands while riding a horse).
4. Rival companies claim mental patients, political prisoners and unclaimed bodies have been used in some factories or that the donors of older body parts used in the shows never gave their consent.
Effect on organ donors
5. UK organ donors may drop because, according to the Chief Medical Officer in the UK, people see commercial high-profile autopsy work as a turn off and have withdrawn their donations.
Marketing to Children
6. Museums take massive amounts of money when they run a corpse show. (The Manchester Body Worlds 4 show is set to take between £4-£8 million at box office-targeting families-under 5s get in free).
The Law
7. In the UK, MOSI (Manchester) may have used legal loop-hole to get its license. (It appears that body parts donated before September 2006 do not need to prove consent to the Human Tissue Authority).
8. Downing Street have approved a petition asking the Prime Minister to review the law regarding the policies and practices of touring shows involving corpses.
By opening the debate it is hoped to:
To stop organ/body donations falling
To get the marketing to children changed and to ensure staff are protected
To get the law reviewed so that publicly funded institutions don't see corpse shows as 'easy money' exhibitions
Three top questions to Von Hagens
1. The Chief Medical Officer has named your work as being responsible for a drop is organ/body donations to our NHS and medical schools. Why do you continue to persist in undermining the medical trust that the public have in their doctors?
2. Will you safeguard vulnerable UK citizens by withdrawing the 'under 5s' free entry policy, by imposing an age limit of 18 and by allowing staff the right not to staff the corspe show?
3. Will you confirm that a legal loop-hole has not been used to secure a license to exhibit and will you submit your documentation?
Body Worlds has developed a series of answers to media questions. Here are some alternative answers to the standard list of questions that they advise museums to prepare for.
If you want to link to www.corpseshow.info please do.
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