Human cadavers and organs on display in the UK should have DNA taken to establish whether they were sourced from “prisoners of conscience” in China, it was argued yesterday.
An open letter signed by an alliance of MPs and medical professionals claimed there was no consent or identification papers for the cadavers on display at the Real Bodies exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.
The exhibition organisers have said the 20 cadavers and 200-plus organs on display were provided by a laboratory in Dalian, China, that specialises in plastination, a process that uses silicon rubber to preserve bodies. They said that all the “specimens featured in the exhibition were donated legally” and were “never prisoners of any kind”.
However, Tom Zaller, the chief executive of