Stiff

It’s with a bit of sadness that I announce I’ve finished reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach.  I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages and happily, it was well-worth the wait.  Surprisingly, it was really funny, not something you’d expect from a book about dead bodies.  It was just the right mix of information and black humour, the latter helping to take the edge off some sections which were rather disturbing.  It’s not a book for the overly-sensitive, and especially not for the overly-sensitive animal lover, as many of the experiments which now use human cadavers were once performed on animals, often live animals.  If you can overlook those things (I gritted my teeth and tried not to think about them too much), you’ll find the book is a great overview of the positive contributions you can make after you die.  By the time I’m old and grey, medical schools might not be using human cadavers for dissection anymore (more and more of them are starting to use sophisticated computer models), but there will probably still be opportunity for my body to be used in experiments to ensure safer vehicles, safer protective gear for military and police, etc.  I could also probably make a contribution to forensic science by being allowed to decompose under supervision.  I actually feel a bit chilly at the thought of lying naked in a field, exposed to the elements for months on end, but if scientists could clothe me in something soft and fleecy I might be up for it (especially if there’s a nice view of a lake or something).  The one thing I know for sure I don’t want is to be embalmed—it just seems like an invasive process which just delays the inevitable.  I also don’t want to be buried in a coffin, as it’s a big waste of money and space.  I’d always been set on cremation because it’s neat and tidy, but thanks to Mary Roach, I now know how I want to go out: Ecological Burial.  To put it roughly, your body is freeze-dried, pulverized with ultrasonic vibrations until it’s reduced to dust, and then it’s placed in a small, biodegradeable box made of corn starch.  The box is placed in the ground, and a plant can be put in the ground as well, with the corn starch box and “freeze-mains” acting as organic compost.  In a way, you eventually become a tree, or a bush, or a flower, or whatever has been planted with you.  That’s exactly how I want to be remembered.

Oh, one more thing I enjoyed about Stiff: a medical student quoted in the book finally put into words a feeling that I’ve carried around for many years.  When I was working on human cadavers in anatomy lab I was never bothered by their faces—it was their hands which gave me the willies.  I still remember shivering as I brushed against the hand of the female cadaver (even as I was endeavouring to avoid it), and I remember finally forcing myself to reach out an touch it, as if on a dare.  The medical student in the book hit the nail on the head when she said that she too felt that cadaver hands were the most intimate part of the body, because when you touch them, they touch you back.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 01/28 at 11:41 PM

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