"Bodies ... The Exhibition" will end its seven-month run at the Carnegie Science Center on Sunday, having generated more attendance and more controversy than any offering in the center's 18-year history.

The exhibit consists of 15 full-body human corpses from China that were flayed, dissected, plasticized and posed, plus 200 other body parts and specimens, including embryos and fetuses from 9 to 32 weeks gestation.

The show is one of several traveling exhibits mounted by competing companies. It has been widely praised as an unprecedented opportunity to see and understand the workings of the human body, and denounced as a human rights atrocity fueling a black market of body trafficking. It has done blockbuster business around the world, sparked heated arguments about the dignity of the dead, and, in recent months, prompted investigations and proposed legislative crackdowns.

Controversy sells, and the Pittsburgh show was no exception.

Local attendance was strong, although not as strong as the Carnegie had hoped. Ann Metzger, science center spokeswoman, originally projected more than 300,000 visitors. The actual number as of last week was 239,600 -- still a record for a single show in that period of time.

Ms. Metzger said the show drew a different audience than the typical science center exhibit. Normally, about 14 percent of visitors come without children younger than 18. But during "Bodies," she said, 56 percent came without children.

"We had a lot of couples, college-age kids and young adults, baby boomers, professionals and older adults who wouldn't be the typical visitors," Ms. Metzger said.

Visitor surveys indicated that the highlight for most people was the fetal gallery, she said, followed by the specimens related to cancer, especially the black lung of a smoker.

The center did extensive programming around the exhibit related to health and health care careers. There were lectures, guided tours with anatomists and collaborative programs with the other Carnegie museums. The center invited visitors to post their reactions, positive and negative, on a wall at the show and on the Carnegie Web site.

Wednesday will be the public's last chance to tour the show with an anatomist.

"We really feel we added to what was already a compelling and fascinating exhibition," Ms. Metzger said.

As for the controversy, "we had expected it, but we worked with the community to address those concerns. Certainly there were times when it was difficult, but overall our visitors have told us they were thrilled. We had very high satisfaction levels and people responded very positively. We were comfortable with it and didn't look back."

And, she added, "we'd do it all over again."

Elaine Catz, the former science center education coordinator who resigned in June in protest over the show, said she's more convinced than ever that she did the right thing by leaving. She set up a Web site with a "virtual picket line" where opponents could register their objections to the exhibit without drawing more attention to it. The site drew 255 protestors from across the country, including 101 from Pittsburgh.

"If I kept anyone away from the show, then I'm glad," said Ms. Catz, of Squirrel Hill, who now teaches science to preschoolers.

"I'm going to be very happy the day it leaves," she added, "but I think the science center damaged its reputation with this show, and that will be more clear as time goes on and more information comes out about the source of the bodies."

None of the deceased in "Bodies" consented to be used as anatomy specimens. The promoter, Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta, says the corpses were unclaimed and legally obtained in China. The Carnegie accepted those assurances.

But Ms. Catz and other critics of China's human rights violations said the burden should have been on Premier to prove the corpses were not executed political prisoners, something the company could not do.

In February, ABC's "20/20" aired an investigative report contradicting Premier's claims. Reporter Brian Ross interviewed a man who said he was a body collector who retrieved executed prisoners from Chinese penal institutions and delivered them to the laboratory that is Premier's partner.

Premier denied any wrongdoing, and the Carnegie dismissed the report as "sensational." But New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office launched an inquiry into Premier's practices, and U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., called for a congressional investigation.

Legislators in several states have moved to place tighter strictures on human cadaver shows. In Pennsylvania, Rep. Michael E. Fleck, R-Huntingdon, introduced a bill to ban the commercial exhibition of human cadavers without written consent that clearly states the person's intent to be used in a profit-making enterprise. The bill has 52 co-sponsors from both parties.

Premier Chief Executive Officer Arnie Geller resigned his post in March, several weeks after the ABC report. The company said his retirement from the day-to-day operations was unrelated to the broadcast, and Mr. Geller remains chairman of the board.

The displays, meanwhile, are proliferating. Lynx Exhibits, a privately owned museum in El Paso, Texas, has mounted its own traveling exhibit of cadavers under the name "Bodies Human: Anatomy in Motion." Lynx co-founder Mike Churchman said the bodies came from Corcoran Labs in Michigan, a supplier of specimens to the medical community. The bodies, he said, were all unclaimed, so no consent was given. The show is currently on display in Albuquerque, N.M.

Next up for the Carnegie Science Center is another offering from Premier, the Titanic Artifact Exhibit. It is distinct from the Titanic Science Exhibit that the Carnegie presented in 2004. The show will run May 24 to Sept. 1. Tickets will be $20 for adults and $15 for children. They go on sale May 15.