Body Worlds Vital - an exhibition of human bodies that have been preserved for science - opens in Auckland today.
It arrives in the country after a similar body exhibition in Australia recently faced criticism over where the bodies came from.
Many had concerns that the bodies put on display in "Real Bodies: The Exhibition" were those of Chinese political prisoners who were tortured and murdered.
However the curator of Body Worlds Vital, Dr Angelina Whalley, says there is no connection between the two exhibitions.
"Our mission has always been to democratise anatomy. That means to make the science available to anyone and that requires democratic procedures. So for us, it is totally unethical to use bodies that haven't decided in their lifetime to be a part of that," she said.
"I appreciate exhibitions that convey similar knowledge that has similar ideas and goals but I find it totally inappropriate to use bodies where there is no informed consent.
"Our roster comprises of 17,000 volunteers, so for us, there is definitely no need to seek bodies that haven't donated... 100 per cent no prisoners or even bodies from China."
However Whalley says those who donated could not be guaranteed how their bodies would be put on display.
"We always let our body donors know that what we can do depends on so many things that we cannot foresee at the time of the donation.
"For instance, how much time has passed between the person [dying] and the corpse arriving at our institute, how far decay may have taken place, whether there are any specific diseases, cause of death, age and the overall body condition."
Whalley believes it's not just ethics that sets the two exhibitions apart.
"Both exhibitions use the same technology. From first glance they look very similar. But to me I see a huge different in quality, attention to the beauty and atheistic of our speciesism."
Body Worlds Vital is a travelling exhibition of human remains that have been preserved through plastination, their fluids and fats swapped with plastics.
Dr Angelina Whalley is married to Dr Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination in the 1970s at the University of Heidelberg to teach students about anatomy. The pair set up Body Worlds in 1997.
More than 17,000 people have donated their bodies to von Hagens' Institute for Plastination, which also sends plastinated specimens to medical schools around the world.
The exhibition is on display at the Hilton Auckland - Princes Wharf until July. Tickets cost between $15-28.
