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I don't have a problem with it even if the bodies were illegally obtained. Unless the people were actually killed specifically to farm their remains, I have no problem with any of it. Burying bodies is a waste, and I'd like it if every brain-dead individual just became property of the state. Then we wouldn't have to pester next of kin with garbage about organ donation (they get pestered even if you signed that card). When I die, if my organs are healthy, I want my kidneys to free two people from a lifetime of dialysis. I want my skin to help burn victims, my heart to save a life, my liver to be cut apart to help maybe a dozen people, my pancreas to help another, etc. What's left, if useful, can be used for research or fed to the fish for all I care.
As for art, well, it's just sculpture. It's not all that creative. Across the Universe, now that's art.
The problem with no documentation and no regulations for production, importation, transportation and/or display of plastinated bodies is that no one can actually say whether the suspicions that these bodies WERE harvested is true or not. For me, the presence of 11 body processing plants next door to prisons and in the same city (Dalian China) as the major military hospital recorded to be the site of organ harvesting, just doesn't add up to a trustworthy combination.
In January of this year, David Kilgour and David Matas of Canada published the results of their independent investigation into the organ harvesting claims. They concluded that the claims were absolutely true. You can read the Kilgour-Matas report at:
http://www.organharv....net/index.html. Again, this took place in the same provence as the body processing. My instincts tell me that there is too much likelihood that there is some connection between the two. With 2 billion dollars made in this new entertainment industry over the last couple of years, I just don't have enough trust in the Chinese system to be able to handle this combination ethically. But, you know, that's just me.
If you want to have your body posed so that some production company executives can buy waterfront property, that's totally up to you. I don't, however, think its ok to be so arrogant as to impose your own idea of moral code on others who may have a different cultural and religious idea of what's 'ok'. That stance reeks of imperialism to me. (Hey, we think its ok to make money from Chinese bodies, so get over your archaic religious beliefs Asia, it should be ok for you too. We are American and we find this totally awesome entertainment. Fork over more bodies!)
Chinese American groups protested in San Francisco and then-City Supervisor Fiona Ma, stated that "Chinese culture is very religious and superstitious regarding death and the display of dead bodies." and later introduced a San Francisco ordinance on corpse exhibits.
Fiona Ma's statements hereSan Francisco protesters hereAsian protesters also picketed the exhibit in London and more recently in Columbus OH.
Columbus Protesters here Its NOT ok for them. So, I think that should be respected.