Miami Student

Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Editorials

The "Bodies" exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal has been raising new ethical issues over the use of cadavers for display. Purchased by the U.S. company Premier Exhibitions, Inc., the bodies for the exhibit were purchased from the Chinese government at a cost of $25 million and are allegedly the unclaimed and unidentifiable bodies of recently deceased individuals from within the country. The Miami Student editorial board believes that while this exhibit presents an extremely enriching opportunity for those that attend, attention should be drawn to the way that these bodies were obtained and the larger picture of China's human rights issues.

When viewed solely as an exhibit, there is enormous scientific merit to "Bodies"-chief among them rests in the ability of the general public to view the effects that different agents have on the body (i.e. smoking or drinking). The exhibit allows people the ability to see systems that would otherwise only be viewed in select locations such as medical schools. Just as technology studies throughout the 1950s and 1960s spurred students to pursue careers in aeronautics and space flight, so too could exhibits like "Bodies" provide for a niche academic experience that spurs an interest in the biological and medical fields.

What this board criticizes is the lack of consent required by the Chinese government for these cadavers to be used for display. While similar exhibits have been available to the American public for decades, the use of these bodies must be viewed in light of the Chinese Communist Party's track record of human rights abuses-specifically the Party's willingness to engage in black market organ sales, suppression of political dissidents, usage of mobile capital punishment vehicles and violent crackdowns of areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang. The claim that these bodies are simply leftover and able to be used should be viewed with intense scrutiny without condemning the benefit of the exhibit itself.

This board believes that while ideally, the country of origin of scientific exhibitions shouldn't matter, the actions of the Chinese government mandate such a response not just from our government but also from visitors to the exhibit. At a point when even the European Union is considering a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing, we cannot assume that the proper consent has been obtained or even that international standards are being upheld uniformly in the country. These bodies showcase the pregnant, the addicted and everything in between-but ultimately, it should not be the ability of a country to ignore fundamental rights of individuals in order to easily turn a profit under the pretense of scientific discovery.

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