Dalian Medical University Caught Exporting Chinese Prisoner Bodies For Profit

A for-profit company affiliated with the Dalian Medical University (DMU) was found to have supplied bodies on commercial display in the US with those of executed prisoners.

Medical Universities in China have been accepting bodies unclaimed by relatives of executed prisoners for teaching purposes without any fees. Some, such as the Dalian Medical University in Dalian, Liaoning Province rediscovered this a new source of profit. Picture on the left shows DMU staff were preparing bodies before they were sold to commercial companies at around $200 to $300 a piece.

The black marketing of prisoner bodies had caused troubles when an exhibits of human bodies toured Japan. It was again caught in spotlight as the attorney general's office of New York State initiated an investigation of whether similar exhibitions in the US properly disclosed the source of the bodies int heir brochures and promotional materials.

The techniques to preserve a body to show condition was developed and pattened by a Germany doctor. The Chinese bodies were obtained through the DMU Plastination Labs, a for profit branch of the DMU. The president of DMU distanced the university from the plastinations labs by claiming the labs operates on its own budget. The incident will be covered by an ABC 20/20 program to be aired on Friday Feb 15, 2008.