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November 18, 2005—After drawing crowds and controversy in Florida, an exhibition of preserved, posed cadavers and body parts is doing the same in New York City—and it hasn't even opened yet.

"Bodies: The Exhibition" debuts tomorrow at the South Street Seaport complex. But already critics are raising questions about the ethics of displaying the corpses.

It's not just that they're dead people, it's that they're dead Chinese prisoners. "Given the [Chinese] government's track record on treatment of prisoners, I find this exhibit deeply problematic," said Sharon Hom, the executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China, in an interview with the New York Times.

Roy Glover, the chief medical advisor and spokesperson for the exhibition, however, told National Geographic News that all the corpses—all unclaimed bodies of prisoners—were "legally obtained" from medical schools and universities in China.

More on the corpses: Find out how they're prepared and how they shocked Florida >>

—Ted Chamberlain

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