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Furore over body show in London

Alice O'Keeffe

Rights group wants proof that the corpses are not those of political prisoners

London: A controversial exhibition of preserved human cadavers and embryos which caused a storm of protest when it was launched in America is to come to Britain.

`Bodies... The Exhibition' features 20 whole cadavers, preserved using a technique known as `plastination,' made famous by the anatomist Gunther von Hagens. It will open at Earls Court later this month. Human rights organisations have attacked the booming industry in travelling exhibitions featuring human corpses. They warned that the bodies, which are from China, could include those of executed political prisoners.

The organiser, Premier Exhibitions, acquired the cadavers in a $25 million deal with Sui Hongjin, a former partner of von Hagens at the Dalian Medical University in China.

It is planning a series of similar exhibitions across the world over the next five years, and has already put on shows in Florida, Atlanta and New York. It says it is aiming to raise awareness of the effects of disease, smoking and obesity on the body.

Questionable record

Hongjin's record has been called into question in the past. In 2004 he and von Hagens were accused of using the bodies of political prisoners in a similar exhibition, Body Worlds — charges that they denied. They did, however, return seven bodies from their exhibition to China after two were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads. There are at least six exhibitions of human cadavers on show around the world, with fierce competition between rival promoters.

In China it is not illegal to use the bodies of political prisoners for commercial purposes. Amnesty International estimates that China executed at least 3,400 people in 2004.

The Chinese government outlawed the sale of human organs last week after widespread criticism of their practice of `harvesting' organs from political prisoners.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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