Forensic agency sued over colonial-era specimens

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) - A group of South Korean citizens has filed a lawsuit
with a local court against the state-run forensic agency over its preservation of
human body parts believed to date back to the period when the Korean Peninsula
was under Japanese colonial rule, court officials said Tuesday.
The five plaintiffs, including one identified by his surname Kang, filed the suit
with the Seoul Central District Court on Monday, demanding proper disposal of the
body parts which have been preserved at the National Institute of Scientific
Investigation (NISI) for decades.
They said the state-run forensic agency has preserved the head of a man known to
be the founder of a local religious following and the reproductive organ of a
Korean "geisha," or female entertainer. The organs were presumed to have been
handed over by Japanese police after Korea's liberation from colonial rule.
"Preserving human body parts should be allowed only on a limited basis when there
are justifiable reasons for such activity, including public welfare and medical
purposes. These specimens, however, were preserved out of misguided sexual
curiosity and male prejudice, rather than the need for sound medical or
pathological purposes," Kang said.
"Considering the (female) specimen is sexually degrading towards the female
reproductive organ... we are concerned that it could be insulting to human
dignity as stipulated in the Constitution," Kang said.
The NISI said it has continued to preserve the specimens since the agency was
established in the mid-1950s. It does not, however, have the documents needed to
verify the identity of the bodies and has not discarded them due to the
possibility that the parts may have some historical meaning, officials said.
"We will look into the case and decide what to do with the specimens," an
official at the NISI said.
The agency was launched in 1955 to provide forensic and scientific evidence in
criminal investigations.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
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