Thursday 11 October 2012

Von Hagens' Body World: Netizens Buzz About Origin of Plastination Bodies

 August 18, 2012

         Chinese netizens now suspect the bodies of the condemned prisoner in China were used for Vons Hagen's Body World. In 1999, von Hagens moved his corpse-processing factory to the Hi-tech Industrial Park in Dalian and invested 15 million US dollars into the new company he founded. Bo Xilai, a former high-ranking Chinese official deposed in disgrace after his wife was incriminated in a high- profile murder case involving a British national, was said to have approved of the relocation of the German-owned company in Dalian when he was the city's mayor.

Chen Lan, an author, wrote in her Weibo, " Donation of full body has a series of procedure to be followed strictly both in China and abroad, and the prerequisite is the consent of the deceased. China has an extremely low body-donation rate, so low that all medical schools are in dire need of cadavers. Even using human bodies for medical  purposes without consent from the deceased or the next-of-kin is illegal, much less the commercial display. The deceased also have dignity and would not have wanted to be pinned to stands with their bodies gutted and laid bare. Disrespect for the deceased is a form of comtemp for life."  

Photos of workers from Dalian-based Von Hagens plastination factory processing corpse, taken by photographer Ryan Pyle.





                                                                                         
In Hagens' exhibition, the most controversial display item is a full body specimen of a young Chinese pregnant women with a 8-month old fetus in her uterus. According to the Chinese law, pregnant women cannot be executed. And even if they died from a fatal accident, there is no way that their family would agree to donate bodies of both of them. In fact, all specimens have only basic descriptions. No consent form signed by the individual or the family or any information regarding the identity of the individual, can be found. 




Source from: http://www.ministryoftofu.com/2012/08/corpse-specimens-of-von-hagens-body-worlds-may-come-from-chinas-death-row-netizens-say/

August 26, 2012

             The coverage in the Epoch Times sparks intense discussion all over the Chinese Internet. Microblogs, Chinese news portal are all buzzing over the source of bodies used to make plastinated corpses in von Hagens Body World. The conversation on the internet began about one week after The Epoch Times first published on this story on Aug. 10 (The Epoch Times website is censored in China and no print version can be distributed in the mainland. Print versions of The Epoch Times in Chinese and English are pulished in Hong Kong), and the volume has become heavy.

             A search for "Hagens"- the pioneer in the plastination business on the the Sina Weibo on Aug. 16 at 10a.m. New York time produced more than 218,000 results; an hour later; there were 17,000 more posts regarding to Epoch Times stuff.

             Netizens made heavy references to a disclaimer posted on the website of one of the plastination companies, Premier exhibitions, as part of a settlement between the company and the New York State Attorney's office in May, 2008.

Screen shot of disclaimer posted on the website of one of the plastination companies, Premier Exhibitions. (The Epoch Times)
             A netizen named " Fangarr" referred to this disclaimer in asking over the past 3 years how many corpses and how many crimes have contributed to these exhibitions. He also asked what this meant for China:" What kind of role have we played? Does anyone have the guts to think about it?"
             Another, "Brilliant Carrer" said that: " In China, pregnant women are never given the death penalty. How is it possible coincidentally that so many pregnant women have died in prison? Even the structure of the fetus is complete?!! This is simply scary.
            China Finances, after raising the question of the interests behind the body business in Dalian, did not mention what The Epoch Times had uncovered: the roles of Gu Kailai and Bo Xilai.

Gu Kailai and her husband Bo Xilai
             Bo, as Communist Party cheif in Dalian City then governor of Liaoning Province, greatly expanded the prsons and loabor camps in Dalian City and Liaoning Province, and filled them with Falun Gong practioners who had gone to Beijing to protest the regime's prosecution. he personally approved the building of von Hagen's groundbreaking factory in Dalian.

              Gu, working with the Briton Neil Heywood as a trusted aide, saw the potential for making a profit off the incarcerated practitioners, according to a source familiar with the matter. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Gu began providing Falun Gong practitioners as subjects for forced organ harvesting to help feed the rapid expansion of the Chinese transplantation industry and she provided the corpses of pactitoners to plastination factories.

              As a media company operating in a highly censored industry that answer to the Communists Party's propaganda department, China Finance could not delve into this background.
              Heng He, a commentator on China, says the Chinese people understand more than the press can say. " Most people believe that Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai are capable of doing such a thing in Dalian and may of them now realize in can only happen in China under communist rule. But no newspaper can print that, " says He. 
           
Source from: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-internet-abuzz-about-origin-of-plastinated-bodies-280729.html









2 comments:

  1. After i finish reading about this post.. Something pop on my mind..I just wondering how they get this pageant woman death body? I feel so suspicious.

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  2. You mean the pregnant woman? That is why there is a huge buzz on the Chinese internet and blogs. There are even rumours that suspect that is the body of Bo Xilai's mistress who is missing for years. Until now, it is still a unsolved mystery although von Hagens himself have made a statement on his official website.

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