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PRESS RELEASE 2/22/08
The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries has made a request to the State of Washington Attorney General requesting a moritorium on cadaver displays until these investigations are complete by New York Attorney Genral Andrew Cuomo. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has started a probe on the human body exhibits and Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., is asking the House Foreign Affairs Committee to investigate the source of the preserved cadavers and a moratorium on the exhibitions, and is calling for the U.S. attorney general to investigate.

These actions follow an ABC News "20/20" investigation that alleged that a black market of bodies in that country led to the inclusions of some executed prisoners in shows sponsored by Premier Exhibitions.
Premier Exhibitions exhibited in Seattle last year at 800 Pike St. hosted by the
Seattle Theater Group and the Museum of History and Industry.
Mr. Smith plans to draft legislation that would require a group of experts to verify the identity of each body on display.

PRESS RELEASE 2/22/08

Press Release
For immediate Release
11/18/06
Amnesty International asked to Investigate Cadaver Exhibits and Museum Directors requesting MOHAI to close the exhibit by end of November.
Directors of The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson have sent a formal request to Amnesty International¹s Western office to review Bodies: The Exhibition and similar types of exhibits using human cadavers as violations of human rights. Amnesty International is an organization whose mission is to investigate human rights abuses and to campaign for human rights. The Directors have also asked Leonard Garfield, Executive Director of the Museum of History and Industry on Nov. 16th to consider closing the exhibit by the end of November 2006 due to the cultural offensiveness and questionable legality of the exhibit. The Museum of History and Industry is renting the exhibit space to Seattle Theater Group who is hosting Premier Exhibition¹s exhibit ³Bodies: The Exhibition². The Directors feel use of the cadavers violates the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act which prohibits the sale of human tissue and feel the exhibit may also violate articles of the Geneva Convention. As there is a possibility the bodies may have been political prisoners and VonHagen¹s has admitted he cannot prove they were not prisoners, the Directors feel there is merit in having these exhibits reviewed for violations of the Geneva Convention.
The Geneva Conventions Protocol I, Art. 75 states: ³Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault is prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilians or military personnel.
Convention III, Art. 13, ³Prisoners of war must be humanely treated at all times. Any unlawful act which causes death or seriously endangers the health of a prisoner of war is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions. In particular, prisoners must not be subject to physical mutilation, biological experiments, violence, intimidation, insults, and public curiosity.

Recent International News from Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) dated Nov. 16, 2006 supports the belief that the cadavers were prisoners. China¹s government has admitted that an illegal traffic in human organs for transplant actually exists. ³Addressing a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that most organs harvested come from executed prisoners. He insisted that informed consent must inform organ harvesting, that donation be voluntary and done with the consent of donors or their families.

³The harvesting, distribution and use of organs must be closely tracked under responsible supervision by related administrations,² Mr Huang said. ³Under-the-table business must be banned,² Mr Huang said cognizant that too often organs come from non consenting parties and are sold for high fees to foreigners. http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7771#

The organizer of the Seattle exhibit, Premier Exhibitions, acquired the cadavers from Sui Hongjin, a former partner of Gunther von Hagens, the originator of these type of cadaver exhibits at the Dalian plant in China which has plastinated the cadavers for Seattle¹s exhibit. Sui Hongjin's record has been called into question in the past. In 2004 Hongin and Von Hagens were accused of using the bodies of political prisoners in a similar exhibition, which they admitted returned seven bodies from their exhibition to China after two were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads.
In March of 2006 The Chinese government outlawed the sale of human organs after widespread criticism of their practice of 'harvesting' organs from political prisoners. ...³any activity that transgresses an individual's human rights or involves the coercion of an individual to become an organ donor² must be condemned.

³The alleged use of organs from executed prisoners without consent [for financial gain] is [. . .] a breach of human rights and is an unacceptable practice.² - Stephen Wigmore, chairman of the British Transplantation Society Ethics Committee, Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies), April 20, 2006
Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson Seattle Museum of the Mysteries 623 Broadway E. Seattle, WA 98102 206-328-6499

Press Release For immediate Release 11/18/06

PRESS RELEASES

Press Release 8.21.06
for immediate release

The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries condemns Premier Exhibitions and the Seattle Theater Groups exhibit ³Bodies: The Exhibition² as a blatant exploitation of cadavers for financial gain. The directors feel the exhibit of over 21 cadavears which are displayed without consent of the deceased is a gross disrespect of the dead and is a violation of basic human rights and ethics. The directors state the exhibit shows no more than what can be viewed at any medical school and is primarily exhibited for shock value under the guise of an educational experience. The directors feel Seattle has sunk to a new low by allowing the exhibitors permits for this public exhibition given there may be health hazards from these foreign cadavers despite preservation techniques. The cadavers have no public verification of their origin and have a history of leaking fluids. The directors feel this is analagous to taking an unknown soldier, cutting him open, removing his skin and exhibiting his naked body in a freak show open to children. The directors feel this practice and exhbit is dehumanizing.

The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries encourages the city to conduct an ethical, legal and health review of this public exhibit before it is allowed to open. The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries is a nonprofit which talks respectfully about the dead everyday exhibiting the history of Seattle and is a member of the Washington State Convention Center and Visitors Bureau 2006.

Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson
Directors, Seattle Museum of the Mysteries
623 Broadway E Seattle, WA 98102
www.seattlechatclub.org 206-328-6499

end Press Release 8.21.06

Press Release
10/14/06
For Immediate Release
Federal Complaint regarding Seattle Cadaver Exhibit filed against Premier Exhibitions.

The Directors of the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson have filed a federal complaint Case No. 06-1490 in U.S. District Court Western District of Washington at Seattle on Oct. 13, 2006 against Premiere Exhibitions of Atlanta, Georgia regarding their exhibit of unconsenting cadavers. The complaint is based on the issue that the exhibitors do not have consent papers and the museum Directors feel the exhibitors are violating the U.S. Anatomical Gift Act which explicitly prohibits the sale of human tissue. The complaint cited a statement by Dr. Lynn Romrell Ph.D. Executive Director of the Anatomical Board of the State of Florida in which he states the board rejected the same exhibit last year based on no consent papers were obtained from the deceased and the city of San Francisco's ordinance prohibiting the display of human remains without authorization or consent after a similar type of exhibit was shown in San Francisco last year and enraged the Chinese community.

The Directors also stated they feel Premier Exhibitions is misleading the public by not stating in their advertisement the bodies are all unconsenting Chinese cadavers. The Directors believe visitors have the right to know the facts to decide for themselves as they believe the public would think twice about purchasing a ticket in which they would be viewing unconsenting bodies and furthering this type of trade of human body parts. Premier Exhibitions is a for profit company and is not a medical or educational institution.

The Directors assert that no U.S. physician has endorsed this exhibit. Dr. Roy Glover who is listed as ³Chief Medical Advisor² for ³Bodies: The Exhibition² is a retired professor of Anatomy from the Univ. of Michigan and is not a physician.

The complaint requested an emergency injunction to close the exhibit ³until as such time as consent documents are produced for the cadavers as well as the identity of each cadaver for review by any medical institution and requesting parties and verified.² Also a stoppage of all advertisements showing cadavers and to initiate a full inquiry into the legality of this exhibit. A Minute Order issued by Judge John C. Coughenour did not approve a request for an emergency injunction to stop the exhibit as the movant did not demonstrate ³immediate and irreparable harm² but the directors were informed the complaint will be forwarded to a magistrate and is on permanent file with the courts. Charlette LeFevre states she did not file the complaint on her behalf but rather the 21 cadavers now on display . As the cadaver¹s identities are not known and requests for documents verifying their identities have been denied, it is impossible at this time to assess the harm and damage to themselves or their families. But given their country of origin - China and their customs of burying the body whole or they spiritually believe their souls will wander the earth it is reasonable to believe these Chinese cadavers would not have wanted to have been displayed to the public and this would be hugely offensive to the families of the deceased.

The Directors of the Museum believe a formal complaint will encourage other institutions and persons to responsibly review this exhibit and speak out on their position regarding the cadaver exhibit . The Directors encourage anyone who has already seen the show and if they were not informed of the lack of consent of the cadavers in the exhibit¹s advertisement and felt they were misled, to ask for a refund.

For more information contact:
Charlette LeFevre or Philip Lipson
Directors, Seattle Museum of the Mysteries
623 Broadway E Seattle, WA 98012
www.seattlechatclub.org
206-328-6499 206-523-6348

Press Release 10/14/06 For Immediate Release

Washington State has two laws regarding human remains. The first one RCW 68.50.080 states a physcian can be used ³only for the promotion of anatomical science ...and so as in no event to outrage the public feeling². There is to date no known physcian in the State of Washington overseeing this exhibit and another law RCW 68.50.140 making it a class C felony for receiving body parts.

RCW 68.50.080 Certificate and bond before receiving bodies. Every physician or surgeon before receiving the dead body must give to the board or officer surrendering the same to him a certificate from the medical society of the county in which he resides, or if there is none, from the board of supervisors of the same, that he is a fit person to receive such dead body. He must also give a bond with two sureties, that each body so by him received will be used only for the promotion of anatomical science, and that it will be used for such purpose in this state only, and so as in no event to outrage the public feeling.

RCW 68.50.140 Unlawful disturbance, removal, or sale of human remains ‹ Penalty. (1) Every person who shall remove human remains, or any part thereof, from a grave, vault, or other place where the same has been buried or deposited awaiting burial or cremation, without authority of law, with intent to sell the same, or for the purpose of securing a reward for its return, or for dissection, or from malice or wantonness, is guilty of a class C felony.

(2) Every person who shall purchase or receive, except for burial or cremation, human remains or any part thereof, knowing that the same has been removed contrary to the foregoing provisions, is guilty of a class C felony.

(3) Every person who shall open a grave or other place of interment, temporary or otherwise, or a building where human remains are placed, with intent to sell or remove the casket, urn, or of any part thereof, or anything attached thereto, or any vestment, or other article interred, or intended to be interred with the human remains, is guilty of a class C felony.

(4) Every person who removes, disinters, or mutilates human remains from a place of interment, without authority of law, is guilty of a class C felony. [2005 c 365 § 140; 2003 c 53 § 308; 1992 c 7 § 44; 1909 c 249 § 239; RRS § 2491. FORMER PART OF SECTION: 1943 c 247 § 25 now codified as RCW 68.50.145. Formerly RCW 68.08.140.]