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Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers By Mary Roach

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“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing.” - Voltaire When you ask a doctor what they do for a living, a common answer given is “I practice medicine.” Take careful note of the word practice. Doctors are never 100% sure what they are doing is the right answer, so they call it practice. How does a doctor practice without putting lives in danger? By practicing on those who feel no pain. I am speaking, of course, of cadavers. In reading the book “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach, you learn that cadavers are a valuable resource. Many times, cadavers are split apart and the limbs transported before being used in many places. Furthermore, parts sometimes undergo multiple surgeries to take full advantage of this precious resource. “In the world of donated cadavers, nothing is wasted.” (24) …show more content…

Rebecca Cook, a first year medical student at Vanderbilt University at the time, gives her first hand account of the gross anatomy lab in the article “Getting to know a cadaver: reflections of a medical student,” telling of her experiences with cadavers. “Studying anatomy on a cadaver is like solving a puzzle, or trying to find Waldo in a Where's Waldo? book: you are trying to figure out how it all fits together, or searching for one small part.” While you can learn anatomy as though you were in high school, through names and charts, you can only know anatomy by seeing it for

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Alan Soderberg Dexter Gore English 1021 8 March 2024 Final Draft Although head transplants are scarcely used in today's medical practice, there is still ongoing research being developed about this topic, with the prime goal in mind of potentially resurrecting a human as well as restoring one's ability to move who are severely paralyzed as well as giving them the ability to enjoy life without restrictions. However, what most may not realize is the grim history surrounding head transplants that enabled today’s researchers to get where they are now. In chapter 9 of Mary Roach’s “Stiff”, the author dives into the advancements in the research and ethics surrounding head transplants of the past and how they improved modern health studies. Using examples

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The books, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, are exemplary models of an American family in poverty, and their journey and struggle to survive. They had to live off of what they had and they thought their lifestyles were normal until realizing others have it easier. Each of these families used different strategies in order to survive their insolvent circumstances and hardships. In Salvage the Bones, Esch and her family kept moving and giving each other strength to survive, during a devastating storm in which left them homeless. In The Glass Castle, even though the Walls family was in poverty and didn’t have a permanent home and were always moving.

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In the book Stiff, by Mary Roach, she shares her experiences in learning about the different disposal of bodies. The book explains that beyond a natural burial and cremation, bodies can also be disintegrated into the Earth or even turned into a tree. Although there are many alternative methods for the disposal of a body, cremation has less environmental concerns, is quicker, and is not as much money compared to most methods; therefore cremation is the most reasonable disposal of a body. Stiff explores different ways to dispose bodies such as tissue digestion, but compared to cremation, it seems to be more environmentally concerning.

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