HW#51: Second Third of COTD Book

Precis:
Cadavers are very helpful. Cadavers can help draw conclusions about how much damage humans can take before it becomes fatal. Cadavers can also help give clues about how a plane crash happened. However, there are also animals that are tested when cadavers are not enough to find out the effects of certain accidents. I would let my dead body go through these tests; don’t want my body to be used religious testing. The most helpful cadavers are those who are brain dead and go through surgery to save peoples’ lives.

Favorite Quotes:
“The sort of things most of us can’t imagine seeing or coping with-severed hands, legs, scraps of flesh-Shanahan is more comfortable with. “That way, it’s just tissue. You can put yourself in that frame of mind and get on with your job.” It’s gory, but not sad.” (116)

“In the case of the U.S. and European research, the theory doesn’t hold. Pigs don’t get shot at because our culture reviles them as filthy and disgusting. Pigs get shot at because their organs are a lot like ours...” (135)

“Does that mean I would let someone blow up my dead foot to help save the feet of NATO landmine clearers? It does. And would I let someone shoot my dead face with a nonlethal projectile to help prevent accidental fatalities? I suppose I would.” (153)

“Everyone wanted to go up and see what it felt like.” Granted, Zugibe was using leather straps, not nails. (Over the years, Zugibe has occasionally received calls from volunteers seeking the real deal. “Would you believe? A girl called me and wanted me to actually nail her...”) (162)

“She bleeds where she is cut and her organs are plump and slippery-looking. The electronic beat of the heart monitor reinforces the impression that this is a living, breathing, thriving person. It is strange, almost impossible, really, to think of her as a corpse.” (169)

“We abide the surgeon’s scalpel to save our own lives, our loved ones’ lives, but not to save a stranger’s life. H has no heart, but heartless is the last thing you’d call her. (195)

Analysis:
This 2/3 of the book made me really upset. The author seems to be okay with having his dead body tested and experimented with, but I wouldn't want that when I die. I tried to think about how these tests would create solutions so future accidents can be prevented-but I still do not want my body to go through so much gore and just be seen as tissue. The chapter that struck me most was the last one I read-about being an organ donor when brain dead. If I become brain-dead I had always wanted to be an organ donor and the chapter furthured this wish. If my dead body can save lives of others, that would be amazing. It would be a waste to just be cremated or buried without donating what is healthy to those who need it.