Stiff

Roach, Mary. Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2003. Print. (292)

Stiff is a realistic approach to what happens to human cadavers. When people think they are donating their body to science, they usually think of their body lying in a University laboratory. Despite this being true for some, it is far from the truth for others.

I myself have visited a cadaver lab with Biology Club out at Kirkwood. I must say, it is quite the experience. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. Before we were let in they had to talk to us about how if any of us start to feel nauseous to let one of the adults know, and that we could leave the room. Overall it was a very cool experience to be able to learn about the human body. “Torso man” can only teach you so much, but seeing and being able to hold actual organs is truly hands on learning.

In Stiff I bet a lot of the donors believed that their body would be in the kind of setting I described above, but in fact, a lot of the times it is not the case. In the first chapter I was at first appalled by the fact that human heads were used practice face lifts. But when you think about it, what else would they practice on? Roach brings up a good point that if you were a patient getting a face lift, would you want your cosmetic surgeon to be performing it on you without any “real” practice. Obviously not, and this is the type of questions raised throughout the book. This is the realistic approach that many of us do not think about. Before reading this book I didn’t really have any interest in donating my body to science. After reading it I feel as though the book has reinforced my decision, even though it is still necessary for the development of human sciences.

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