Stiff
I'm currently reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. It's fascinating, gruesome, informative, and laugh-out-loud funny. Here is one of the footnotes. I mean, seriously, did you know this?
"I'm a believer in organ and tissue (bone, cartilage, skin) donation, but was startled to learn that donated skin that isn't used for, say, grafting onto burn victims may be processed and used cosmetically to plump up wrinkles and aggrandize penises. While I have no preconceived notions of the hereafter, I stand firm in my conviction that it should not take the form of someone else's underpants." - Mary Roach
The book covers 12 topics:
* Practicing cosmetic surgery on cadaver heads
* Body snatching and the early years of human dissection
* The nature of decomposition
* Cadavers for use as crash test dummies
* Using cadavers to analyze a crash site
* Army tests on cadavers
* Crucifixion experiments
* Beating heart cadavers, the soul, and being buried alive
* Decapitation and human head transplant
* Cannibalism in the name of medicine
* New alternatives to burial and cremation
* The author's views on her own remains
Thanks to Doug & Gerard for the recommendation!
Susan
