on this episode of China uncensored our
murder victims being used as
entertainment hi welcome to China
uncensored I'm Chris Chappell
the human body is an amazing thing
almost every ancient civilization on
earth believe that in some way or
another the human body was created by
the divine in the image of God and
people have taken the study of the human
body very seriously and more often than
not the human body is related back to
heavenly principles in China there's the
Tai Chi meeting and young the front of
the body is sometimes considered in
while the back of the body is young
then it's believed that Tai Chi gave
birth to the bagua eight trigrams and
all the joints in your bodies comes in
three just like the bagua and it's no
coincidence that Chinese have based
martial arts off of Tai Chi and ba gua
then there's whooshing or the five
elements of Earth wood fire water and
metal that make up everything in the
universe did you know that your liver is
wood and your lungs are metal in the
West there's the golden ratio a ratio of
about one point six one eight that shows
up all over the human body even your
teeth and can be seen everywhere in
nature from shells to hurricanes to
galaxies and it's inspired Western art
and architecture for centuries so human
beings have always been pretty
fascinated by the human body that could
explain part of the success of Body
Worlds and it's derivative bodies the
exhibition these exhibits use a process
known as plastination a process created
by body world's creator Gunther von
Hagens to preserve actual human corpses
so they can be displayed often in some
creative positions now there's been some
debate about the morality of doing this
if the exhibit is too ghoulish however
in general people seem to feel that if
the people donated their bodies for this
then this is a really good way to learn
about the human body but so while most
moral debates have focused on whether
the concept is good or not there is
actually a far more serious potentially
sinister side to these shows that isn't
really getting coverage that the bodies
on display might be from murdered they
items that's what a recent article in
the Weekly Standard by China author and
researcher Ethan Gutmann said
allegations have been around for a while
now that both exhibits use bodies of
executed prisoners from China for a
comprehensive look at the issue please
check out this episode of China focus we
know China gets organs from executed
prisoners and there's growing evidence
that those executed don't necessarily
have to have committed any crimes or
have gone through any kind of legal
process transplant numbers grew quickly
after 1999 and now about 10,000
transplant happened in China each year
but even high estimates of executions
couldn't account for the organ sources
because things like tissue matching
would require a much bigger pool of
organs so where do those extra organs
come from eastland Guttman as well as
other investigators have an answer
practitioners of Falun Gong a Buddhist
revival movement he calls it people
murdered by the Communist Party for
persisting in their faith after a
nationwide crackdown that began in 1999
and what happens to those bodies after
they're killed plastinated specimens are
surprisingly profitable could these
bodies serve a dual purpose
the allegations about forced organ
harvesting came out in 2006 mr. Gutman
said he didn't believe them at first but
after doing some research himself he
concluded that the allegations couldn't
be dismissed since that one focused more
on Body Worlds and bodies the exhibition
right now if you want to know more about
the forced organ harvesting of Falun
Gong practitioners you can watch my
three-part series
China's secret Holocaust so are the
bodies at these exhibits the corpses of
Falun Gong practitioners splayed out in
a macabre dance for public amusement and
the price of admission well we know that
creator Gunther von Hagens set up his
plastination plant in Dalian city in
Liaoning province with the help of a man
named SOI Hong Jing who would later
steal the plastination process and begin
either selling or licensing bodies to
premiere exhibitions owner and operator
of rival exhibit bodies the exhibition
before the split their factory was
approved in 1999 the same year as when
the crackdown against Falun Gong began
and was in operation until 2007 so
since Chinese people generally don't
donate their bodies any cadaver has to
be fresh for it to be plastinated where
exactly were these bodies coming from
now soy has admitted that he got corpses
from China's Public Security Bureau
which means they really could be anyone
and in 2008 soya was directly accused of
using executed prisoners by an
unidentified male an informant on ABC's
20/20
von Hagens has avoided most of these
allegations because he closed his Dalian
plant the year before and has gone on
record tearfully saying he destroyed all
his Chinese corpses once their origin
became suspect now
Guttman isn't so sure about that in his
article he gives several reasons why he
thinks that might not necessarily be the
case but he has come up with a pretty
brilliant idea that could end the debate
once and for all
DNA testing according to medical experts
he contacted mitochondrial DNA could
still be extracted from the preserved
specimens this will determine whether
bodies from either exhibit are Chinese
if so the DNA could be tested against
Chinese families who had a loved one
disappeared during the time when the
Dalian factories were cranking out their
hellish Barbie and Ken dolls that might
not be as difficult as you think a Falun
Gong run website Ming hai org maintains
lists of practitioners who have gone
missing including in the Leona ng
Province of which there are more than
any other Province in China if their
families could be made aware of the
effort all it would take would be for a
family member to send in a cheek swab to
create a DNA link now the problem is
this would require permission from von
Hagens and zwei
von Hagens might be interested in this
as a way to perhaps once and for all
clear his name from all these
allegations that have persistently
dogged him for years
for soy however if it turns out he's
been knowingly making big bucks off
murder victims
mr. Gotham believes this could make him
and the exhibition company accessories
to crimes against humanity so what do
you guys think about Ethan Gutmann plan
should von Hagens and sway volunteer up
the DNA of the corpses that have made
their fortune and fame if you want to
read even Guffman the original article I
posted a link in the description for
more information check out China
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I'm backing in tomorrow with another new
episode thanks for watching once again
I'm Chris Chappell see you next time
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