Crowds, Controversy Follow Exhibits of Human Corpses
Aug. 18, 2005 — -- The exhibition at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry is designed to offer a graphic, incredibly detailed look at the inner workings of our bodies. But attempts are under way to shut it down, because it features actual human corpses.
"Bodies, The Exhibition" is one of several educational touring displays that aim to teach the public about health and the body by showing actual human body parts preserved through a recently developed process known as plastinization.
The exhibit opened today, despite a move from the Florida State Anatomical Board which voted 4-2 to stop the show out of concerns that the people never gave permission for their remains to be displayed. According to the Anatomical Board, such authorization is required by Florida law. The Tampa exhibit uses unclaimed and unidentified cadavers from China.
"I just personally don't think that's an appropriate use of dead human bodies," said one board member, Phillip Waggoner.
"Their decision is an opinion. There is no law that we understand that governs what it is that we're doing," said Dr. Roy Glover, spokesman for Premiere Exhibitions, which organized the show.
Glover spent 36 years teaching anatomy at the University of Michigan's Medical School before signing on with this exhibit. He attended the Anatomical Board meeting on Wednesday and was surprsied that a group that typically governs medical schools would weigh in on a public exhibit, saying this would be a "stretch" of their authority.
"They knew that that information was not available because these were unclaimed bodies but they had come through the system in China in all the legal ways," Glover said. "They get used by medical schools to learn and to teach and so that's what we're doing -- we're just using them in a public environment."
The museum decided to open the exhibit two days ahead of schedule so that the public could see for themselves and has not yet faced legal action from the Anatomical Board.
Related Stories
ABC News Live