SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle City Council has voted to effectively ban the cadaver exhibit “Bodies … The Exhibition” from returning to the city. The ordinance that now goes to Mayor Mike McGinn would bar commercial displays of human remains that don’t have proof of consent.
The show came to Seattle in 2006 and 2009. A number of Seattle residents have voiced concern over the ethics of such exhibits.
Atlanta, Ga.-based Premier Exhibitions didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail for comment. On its website, Premier says it obtained its more than 200 bodies from a plastination facility in China, which received them from Chinese medical universities. The universities received them from the Chinese Bureau of Police.
Exceptions in the ordinance would be made for remains that are more than 100 years old, part of an ordinary funereal display, or objects of religious veneration. ♦