The Bodies Revealed Exhibition is a traveling exhibition of 14 bodies, broken down to show the inner workings of the human body. The exhibition is currently at the Natural Science Center of Greensboro.

There is no doubt that this is a fascinating exhibit. It gives visitors a visual of how our bodies work. Learning about anatomy in a classroom or even with plastic diagrams is one thing. But seeing the real human body broken down in such a manner is something that up until now, few people had the opportunity to see.

The masterminds behind the Bodies Revealed Exhibit are Premier Exhibitions, Inc.

What’s worth noting about the Bodies Revealed Exhibition, however, is that in 2004, the current Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, put the company under investigation regarding the means by which they were obtaining the bodies used in their original exhibit “Bodies … the Exhibition” in New York City.

The information that was brought to light through that investigation is sickening.

The cadavers in the exhibit were unclaimed bodies received from the Chinese Bureau of Police. Premier was unable to definitively verify that the bodies on exhibit were not those of incarcerated Chinese prisoners.

The company also said they could not independently verify that body parts in the exhibits were not those of people who had been executed, tortured, or otherwise mistreated.

It is appalling that Premier Exhibitions thought it was okay to put bodies on display of people who did not give their consent.

Just because a person’s body is unclaimed does not make them less of a person. They were still once someone’s child, someone’s friend, someone’s loved one.

Every person deserves the right to at least have a funeral, a remembrance, a moment of silence — something that acknowledged that a human life has been lost. Or in the case of the pregnant woman and fetus that are displayed: two lives lost.

It is heartbreaking to think once these people died, their bodies became objects. After they died they were no longer humans, but literal plastic dolls.

According to the Bodies Revealed Exhibition website, the polymer preserve takes all the liquid out of your body and replaces it with a plastic liquid, hardening the corpse forever.

Premier Exhibitions took the most private thing a person has — their body — and turned it into a profit.

Putting people on display for the world to see without consent is just wrong. Dismembering another human without their consent and parading them around for a profit is dehumanizing.

The bodies of these people were merely an exhibition generating massive amounts of money for a company.

The Bodies Revealed Exhibition does not display the same cadavers as the original exhibit. The company may have cleaned up their act. However, wrongdoings of the past should not be overlooked.

The exhibits are as popular as ever, and Premier Exhibitions is still making money. Their actions do not mirror those of an organization that wants to educate.

It seems clear that Premier Exhibitions is taking advantage of the museums that display their exhibits. At the Natural Science Center of Greensboro, the regular rate for admission is $8 for non-members and free for members. The Bodies Revealed exhibit is $20 for members and $21 for non-members.

Why are we paying so much more than the regular price to see this exhibit?

Today, it seems as though even the quest for knowledge is tainted by the greed of commercialism.