Updated (below) July 17

If you didn’t see Bodies: the Exhibition, the traveling show of flailed, plastinated, posed, and dissected cadavers, before its second local run closed in March, you may not get another chance. On Wednesday the Seattle City Council’s health and culture committee unanimously passed a bill from Councilmember Nick Licata that would ban displaying human remains for commercial purposes without documented consent from the deceased.

Licata notes the specimens’ murky origins in China, where transparency is scarce, the body trade is booming, and executed prisoners are rumored to supply it. He also questions whether ‘Bodies’ was educational, as claimed, or just sensational. (My view: both. Creepy though it was, it was definitely instructive; Renaissance artists and modern medicine depended on the study of dissected corpses.)

Given all that, the whole council seems likely to approve Licata’s bill on Monday.That sounds admirable, but it raises a couple questions: Why did the council wait till now, rather than stepping in while the horse was still in the barn? ‘Bodies’ first came to Seattle in 2006, and San Francisco passed a similar bill in 2005. Whoever wanted to see it likely did; by the time its second local closed, the promoters were giving away tickets by the bookfull.

And “commercial” is in the eye of the beholder. How would this bill affect the display of mummies or prehistoric bones, such as the recent "Lucy" show at the Pacific Science Center. Luckily, that shouldn’t be an issue when another King Tut blockbuster comes to Seattle in 2012. It will likely include only nonhuman artifacts; Egypt now forbids taking Tut abroad.

JULY 17, 11:40am

Nick Licata replied this morning to questions emailed yesterday about his "Display of Human Remains" bill.

Q: Why didn’t you do this sooner? Did the idea come up when ‘Bodies’ first arrived in 2006, or when it returned in 2009?

LICATA: I was not approached by citizens until this last one – at least I don’t recall being approached the first go-around. I think there was at first an open attitude to see what it was all about by most in the public. Although there was repulsion by some people, particularly from the Asian community, it was very scattered and limited. The second exhibit I think struck a larger response. That’s when it was brought to my attention and I started to look into their practices.

Would this ban the display of, say, mummies and prehistoric remains?…

No. There is no restriction on bodies that are over 100 years old, nor on open casket funerals.

Does the bill define ‘commercial’ to exclude nonprofits, or is that commonly understood?

I believe the legal definition refers to profit making enterprises. That’s how it was intended.