---
title: "Body Worlds"
chunk: 3/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Worlds"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:24:01.635422+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== Hawaii ====
In January 2009, Rep. Marcus Oshiro introduced two bills prompted by presentation of the BODIES Exhibition in that state. HB28 Relating to Dead Human Bodies would add to the prohibition against buying dead human bodies, the selling of dead human bodies and defines the term "dead human body" to include plastinated bodies and body parts. It would increase the fine for buying or selling a dead human body to up to $5,000. HB29 Relating to Dead Human Bodies would prohibit the commercial display of dead human bodies without a permit from the Department of Health.

==== New York ====
In June 2008, New York State Senate passed legislation regulating body exhibits. A bill that was sponsored by Senator Jim Alesi requires anyone showing an exhibit that uses real human bodies in New York museums to produce a permit detailing their origin. BODY WORLDS was hosted at Discovery Times Square in New York City. 

==== Pennsylvania ====
Representative Mike Fleck's proposed bill would require evidence of informed consent from the decedent or relatives of all humans whose remains are put on display. BODY WORLDS exhibitions have been hosted in Philadelphia at the Franklin Institute and in Allentown at the Da Vinci Science Center. 

==== Washington ====
The state of Washington considered a bill that would "require written authorization to display human remains for a commercial purpose".

== Controversies ==

=== Consent ===
There have been several reports of corpses in the Body Worlds exhibit being prepared and shown without consent. In January 2004, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported, based on internal emails and records as well as statements from von Hagens, that his company had acquired corpses of Chinese prisoners from capital punishment. In response to the article, von Hagens said that he has told his Chinese employees not to accept bodies that were executed, and returned seven cadavers to China that had head injuries, including at least two with bullet holes in the skull. In 2004, von Hagens obtained an injunction against Der Spiegel for making the claims. Paul Harris, director of North Carolina's State Board of Funeral Services, has stated, "Somebody at some level of government ought to be able to look at a death certificate, a statement from an embalmer, donation documents... That's a reasonable standard to apply." Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) said, "These displays do have important educational benefits, but using bodies against a person's will is unacceptable".
In 2002, two Russian doctors from the University of Novosibirsk were charged with illegally supplying von Hagens with 56 bodies, including convicts, homeless people, and mentally ill people, without consent from their relatives. Von Hagens said that none of the body parts were used in the Body Worlds exhibitions. Bodies from the Kyrgyz State Medical Academy were also found to have been obtained illegally in 2005.
Consent is not regulated worldwide according to the same ethical standards, raising ethical concerns. "[P]aperwork is... separated from the bodies, which can be used for displays or sold in pieces to medical schools. No one will know for sure, because each plastinated corpse is made anonymous to protect its privacy." Hans Martin Sass, a philosophy professor with a speciality in ethics, was hired by the California Science Center to investigate Body Worlds before the show's US debut in 2004. He matched over 200 donation forms to death certificates, but he did not match the paperwork to specific bodies von Hagens has on display.

=== Import laws ===
International trade experts have objected to the way in which bodies for commercial display are imported, because the way their categorization codes (as "art collections") do not require Centers for Disease Control stamps or death certificates, both of which are required for medical cadavers. In most countries plastinated human specimens are classified under Customs Classification Code 97050000.48 "items in anatomical collections". This customs code encompasses "zoological, botanical, mineralogical or anatomical collections or items in such collections."

=== Ethical concerns about cadaver displays ===
In an ethical analysis, Thomas Hibbs, professor of ethics and culture at Baylor University, a private Baptist-affiliated institution, compared cadaver displays to pornography, in that they reduce the subject to "the manipulation of body parts stripped of any larger human significance."
In a 2006 lecture entitled "Plasti-Nation: How America was Won", Lucia Tanassi, professor of medical ethics and anthropology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explored questions for ethicists regarding this new scientific frontier. Tanassi called it provocative that ethics committees have contributed to the popularization of the exhibits without setting forth any process of a line of inquiry, pointing to an ethics report from the California Science Center. As part of that review, bioethicist Hans Martin Sass was sent to Heidelberg to match donor consents with death certificates.
Concerns have been expressed about the educational aspects, especially the inclusion of these displays for school field trips. St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke strongly suggested that Catholic schools avoid scheduling field trips, stating that parents, and not children, should retain the freedom of deciding whether or not their children will view the exhibit. Concerned with how "some kids process" these "graphic" images, Des McKay, school superintendent in Abbotsford, British Columbia (near Greater Vancouver), barred field trips to exhibits of plasticized human beings. In an editorial to the Abbotsford News, Rev. Christoph Reiners questions what effect the exhibits will have on the values of children attending for school field trips. Others—such as the Catholic Schools Office of Phoenix—acknowledge the educational content of Body Worlds. Reporting on the exhibition at the O2 bubble in 2008/2009, Melanie Reid of The Times stated "(Body Worlds) should be compulsory viewing for every child of 10 or over".