A Channel Islands auction house says it's selling a vial that allegedly contains blood residue from Ronald Reagan _ a move denounced Tuesday by the late U.S. president's family and his foundation.
The vial being auctioned online was used by the laboratory that tested Reagan's blood when he was hospitalized after a 1981 assassination attempt in Washington, the PFCAuctions house said.
Reagan's son Michael condemned the auction but said he was confident it was not his father's blood.
``Whatever's in the vial _ could be mouse blood _ it's certainly not Reagan blood,'' Reagan said in a telephone call from Los Angeles. ``And what an outrageous thing to do to (Reagan's widow) Nancy and the family. I hope the world calls on this organization to cease and desist because it's so bogus.''
``Even if it were true, how dare they, how dare they do such a thing?''
John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in California, condemned the auction and vowed to try to halt it. Bidding for the vial had passed the 7,000-pound ($11,000) mark Tuesday, the house said, and the auction ends Thursday.
``If indeed this story is true, it's a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase,'' Heubusch said in a statement. ``We've spoken to GW (George Washington) Hospital and are assured an investigation as to how something like this could possibly happen is underway.
``Any individual, including a president of the United States, should feel confident that once they enter into the care of a medical system their privacy and rights are held inviolable,'' he said.
The auction house on the Channels Islands between England and France said on its website that the blood vial did not come from the Washington hospital that treated Reagan but from the Bio Science Laboratory in Columbia, Maryland.
The item is a five-inch glass vial that is one half-inch in diameter and has a green rubber stopper. The auction house says it clearly contains traces of dried blood.
The vial is being sold by a man whose late mother took it from the laboratory with permission weeks after the tests were made, auction house spokeswoman Kylie Whitehead told The Associated Press.
``No one from the foundation or from the family has complained to us,'' she said Tuesday.
In a statement on the auction house's website, the seller said he tried to interest the Reagan library in purchasing the vial from him but did not succeed. He said the lab director told his mother she could take it.
The auction house website says the seller claimed he was a supporter of Reagan's conservative economic policies and believes the late president would have wanted him to sell the vial rather than donate it.
Reagan required emergency surgery after he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. outside the Washington Hilton Hotel shortly after speaking to labor union officials on March 30, 1981. Hinckley fired six shots at the president from close range. All six missed, but one bullet ricocheted and hit Reagan.
The president was wounded barely two months after taking office. He suffered a punctured lung and severe internal bleeding that required life-saving surgery.
His popular press secretary, James Brady, was left paralyzed after being shot. Two people protecting Reagan were also wounded.
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He remains in a psychiatric facility in the Washington area but has been allowed to spend some time with his family. (AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
前대통령이 흘린 피를 돈받고 팔다니..!
영국해협의 채널제도에 있는 한 경매회사가 로널드 레이건 전 미국 대통령의 혈액이 들어 있는 유리병을 경매에 올려 논란이 일고 있다.
온라인 경매업체인 PFC옥션은 22일(현지시간) 이 유리병에 레이건 전 대통령의 응고된 혈액 일부가 들어 있다면서 이는 1981년 레이건이 암살 위기를 넘긴 직후 입 원했을 때 혈액검사를 위해 채취됐던 것이라고 밝혔다.
이 회사의 카일리 화이트헤드 대변인은 "소유주는 작고한 모친이 혈액검사 몇 주 이후 실험실의 허가를 받아 유출했던 것을 매물로 내놓은 것"이라고 설명했다.
이에 대해 미국 캘리포니아주(州)에 있는 레이건재단은 강하게 반발하고 있다.
존 휴버쉬 재단 대표는 성명에서 "이게 사실이라면 너무나 개탄스런 일"라며 "해당 매물의 거래를 중단시키기 위해 모든 법적 수단을 동원할 것"이라고 밝혔다.
그는 "병원측에 문의해 어떻게 이런 일이 벌어졌는지를 조사하고 있다는 답변을 들었다"며 "미국 대통령을 포함한 모든 개인은 병원에서 치료받을 때 기본권이 보호 될 것이라고 확인할 수 있어야 한다"고 말했다.
병원측에 따르면 이 혈액의 출처는 미 메릴랜드주에 있는 바이오과학실험실이다 .
또 매물 소유자는 자칭 레이건 대통령이 취한 보수적 경제정책의 지지자로, 레이건 본인이 이 매물을 기부하는 것보다는 판매하기를 원할 것이라고 주장하고 있다 고 밝혔다.
이날 현재 이 매물의 호가는 7천파운드(1만1천달러)를 넘어섰다.
레이건 전 대통령은 1981년 워싱턴의 힐튼 호텔 바깥에서 존 힝클리 주니어가 쏜 총을 맞고 응급 수술을 받았었다.
채널제도는 영국해협의 프랑스 노르망디 해안에 위치한 영국 왕실 소유의 건지 섬과 저지섬 등으로 구성돼 있으며 각 섬은 자체적인 입법기관을 가지고 있다.
