German corpse show used ‘legal loop-hole’ to secure license

Date published: 21/02/2008

The Human Tissue Authority has confirmed to the Church of England that Body Worlds 4, the latest corpse show by Dr von Hagens, has been granted a license to exhibit real dead bodies, but has avoided stringent UK tissue compliance checks because the bodies are "imported from Germany’. The Church of England has set up a website and an online Downing Street petition calling for Gordon Brown to review the law regarding the policies and practices of shows involving corpses.

The "display clause’ of the Human Tissue Act has been invoked for the first time for the Body Worlds 4 corpse show, which opens at Manchester’s Museum of Science (MoSI) on 22 February 2008. The new laws were brought in following the Alder Hay scandal and made the consent of the donor essential for the storage and display of bodies and body parts.  Two loop-holes have been identified by the Church.

Referring to the license granted to MoSI and Body Worlds 4, Dr Shaun Griffin, Director of Communications at the Human Tissue Authority told the Diocese of Manchester: "In this case, the bodies have been imported from Germany, and the consent provisions of the HT Act therefore do not apply". The Authority also confirmed a second loop-hole saying: "In addition I can clarify that the consent provisions of the Act do not apply to 'existing holdings', in other words, any material held before the commencement of the Act (for this sector, 1 Sept 06) does not need consent (but does need to be stored on licensed premises)." 

A spokesman for the Diocese of Manchester said: "Potentially these loop-holes will open the flood gates for other foreign entertainment companies to run dozens of corpse shows across the UK. Despite a ten year marketing campaign, when you peel away the spin, these shows are part of the multi-million pound entertainment industry. Corpse shows are banned in Scotland. The potential increase in these shows is a concern to medical schools and England’s Chief Medical Officer who confirmed that the work of von Hagens has reduced organ/body donations to NHS and medical Schools. On May 14 2007 he quoted actual donors who mentioned Von Hagens work as the reason for their withdrawal from donor schemes."

The two main corpse show companies are the Institute of Plastination, run by von Hagens and Premier Exhibitions Inc which has admitted using Chinese political prisoners in their shows.  Referring to the competition Dr von Hagens has said. "All the copycat exhibitions are from China," "And they’re all using unclaimed bodies."  Mr Geller, the chairman of Premier, has countered Dr von Hagens: "He says his full body specimens are all donors, but his organs may not be from donors. Listen closely to what he says." 

Museums take massive amounts of money when they run a corpse show. (The Manchester BodyWorlds4 show is set to take between £4-£8 million at box office-MoSI is targeting families-under 5s get in free).

The HTA said "The responsibility of the HTA does not extend to that of judging good or bad taste. We are concerned with making sure that all licensed establishments comply with standards on consent, governance, quality, premises and facilities as set out in the HT Act."  However, with an exemption on the need to prove consent, it is not clear on what "quality’ grounds MoSI is to be evaluated.