Freepers, if anyone has a minute to look these up and link them on this page, please feel free. I'm bogged down today and all of these topics are important for this thread.
www.sptimes.com and www.tbo.com (Tampa Tribune).
Thanks in advance, FV (I'll try and post some links later but I'm on the run at the moment).
And, My desk is being attacked by little ants. I have to find out where they're coming from! aaaaaaak!!!
There are photos and a video at the site.
Proposed MOSI 'Bodies' exhibition may be dead on arrival
an ABC Action News report 08/02/05
http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2005/08/050802mosi.shtml
TAMPA - A controversial exhibit featuring dead bodies may never get a chance to open at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry. Florida law could make it impossible for the Bodies exhibit to go forward, Action News investigator Robin Guess discovered.
The state's Anatomical Board says it will oppose the show's opening. The critical question centers around the origin of the 20 bodies and the body parts that make up the exhibit.
Robin Guess asked Premiere Exhibitions -- the company behind the MOSI bodies exhibit -- if it could satisfy state requirements by documenting the origin of the bodies; the company said the bodies are from China, but provided no proof of consent.
"If anything is illegal for any one of those individual bodies, then we will not show it at the science center," MOSI president Wit Ostrenko pledged.
Even if MOSI can document the bodies' origin and prove that consent was given for the bodies to be used in a for-profit display, Florida's Anatomical Board says state law prohibits the public display of corpses.
The only exception is for teaching or educational purposes, and it will be difficult for MOSI to make that argument. The exhibit is for profit -- MOSI is charging $20 for an adult ticket, and similar shows around the country have made millions of dollars.
"MOSI is going to take its share of the revenue. We will just put it back into the $5 million more that we need to raise for our permanent exhibits," Ostenko continued.
A similar exhibit in California was plagued by problems with the display bodies dripping.
Dr. Lynn Romrell, head of the Anatomical Board, told Action News he will require MOSI to provide the following documentation for the show to go forward:
An explanation of the educational purpose
The name of the facility supplying the cadavers
Proof of release from the individual or family
Bodies is an exhibit that features skinless, specially preserved human bodies meant to display how the different anatomical systems work together, as well as individual body parts preserved to reveal their true appearance.
A similar exhibit in San Francisco caused a huge controversy after bodies began dripping human fat and silicone.
Meanwhile, the president of Los Angeles' science center has concerns about the origins of the bodies displayed at these sorts of exhibits. Jeff Rudolph formed an ethics committee whose members traveled the world to make sure bodies were obtained with full consent.
"From an ethical perspective, it was really critical that we had people who knowingly and willingly gave their bodies for public exhibition," Jeff Rudolph stated.
Premiere Exhibitions is the same company that also staged the successful Titanic exhibit at MOSI.
From Felos's office. Careful, they have little teensy cameras and microphones.