Article published on the 2009-04-21 Latest update 2009-04-21 14:23 TU
The lawyer for the organisers has already appealed against the ruling. The show, which opened mid-Feburary, displays the bodies of 17 Chinese men and women, often dissected to expose their anatomy.
Two organisations opposed to the death penalty in China accused Encore Events of breaching human rights. They claimed that the bodies could have been those of executed prisoners. The organisers say that the bodies were supplied by the Anatomical Sciences &. Technologies Foundation (Hong Kong), Ltd, and that the people had given their consent when they were alive.
"We were not showing anything that could have been shocking people," says scientific adviser Hervé Laurent. "So that's why we are really surprised."
At the hearing three weeks ago the organisers claimed that the exhibition is scientific and educational. The bodies are coated with a special plastic, exposing the nervous system, muscle tissues and organs.
The court judged that the dissections were not scientifically justifiable, the colouring arbitrary and the display unrealistic.
The exhibition has already been to Lyons and Marseilles in France, as well as going to the US, Germany and Spain, and has been visited by an estimated 30 million people.
2009-03-02 14:28 TU