For about as long as I've known it's an option, I've had the organ donor box checked to "yes" on my driver's licence. I've also checked the box that states I would prefer to not donate my entire body to science: my mental picture of first year medical students giggling at or being repulsed by my ancient, withered, naked body (because I know that I'll be old when I die, right?) sits uncomfortably with my notions of dignity and decorum. As an examination of what might happen to our corpses after death, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers does little to change my preconceptions.
There is a nice passage about the respectful memorial service that med students give to their assigned cadavers, but there is also much said about the jokey atmosphere that can be found in a Gross Anatomy lab (apparently encouraged by instructors in order to help the students develop the impassionate distancing that doctors need to have with patients) and the gallows humour that can be found in the many other labs and testing facilities where a donated body might end up (as crash test dummies in plane crash simulations or as subjects in decomposition studies). Now, I know that I won't be present in my body after death, and that even my family wouldn't know to what indignities my mortal coil might be subjected were I to change my mind about whole cadaver donation, but according to Mary Roach, even doctors can be reluctant to follow that path:
• The Plastic Surgeon Marilena, fresh from practising techniques on a decapitated head, said that she wouldn't be donating her body for medical use citing "a lack of respect".
• Sir Astley Cooper, the nineteenth century surgeon and anatomist who had a no-questions-asked policy of cadaver purchasing, was so concerned about having his own grave robbed for dissection that when he died he "not only went for the triple coffin option but had the whole absurd Chinese-box affair housed in a hulking stone sarcophagus".
The fate of one's own remains isn't really the thrust of Stiff (even if that's where it directed my own thoughts), but it does give an overview of some of the interesting uses to which a donated cadaver can be put (as well as the traditional burial/cremation options). Despite being given access to many different labs and medical schools and funeral homes and hospitals -- places I know I'll never see behind the scenes for myself -- I don't think that the journalist Roach really told me much I didn't know before, or if I didn't know the specific facts, I rarely thought, "Wow, that's fascinating!" The historical tidbits were kind of interesting (even if grave robbing is familiar from Frankenstein and bathing in the blood of virgins is old news), and this was my favourite new fact (taken from Wikipedia because this was an audiobook and I can't find the passage to quote):
Mellified man, or human mummy confection, was a legendary medicinal substance created by steeping a human cadaver in honey. Some elderly men in Arabia, nearing the end of their lives, would submit themselves to a process of mummification in honey to create a healing confection. This process differed from a simple body donation because of the aspect of self-sacrifice; the mellification process would ideally start before death. The donor would stop eating any food other than honey, going as far as to bathe in the substance. Shortly, his feces (and even his sweat, according to legend) would consist of honey. When this diet finally proved fatal, the donor's body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey. After a century or so, the contents would have turned into a sort of confection reputedly capable of healing broken limbs and other ailments. This confection would then be carefully sold in street markets as a hard to find item with a hefty price.
I don't know if human mummy confection is enough to say this was really a worthwhile read, though. Stiff is noted as "oddly compelling, often hilarious" (according to its own press) and if I didn't find it particularly compelling, I also didn't find the droll asides to be hilarious either. A typical joke: When referring to the ancient Egyptian practice of placing pearl onions into the empty eye sockets of the deceased, Roach states, "Speaking for myself, if I had to have a small round martini garnish inserted under my eyelids, I would go with olives." Why? What was the point of that joke? To break up the tension of talking about dead people? Because pimento-stuffed olives look more like eyeballs? That level of humour was just annoying to me.
Back to my own remains: I've always thought that being embalmed and buried in a brass-handled casket is unnatural and a waste of money and space. As the only other choice (barring whole body donation for medical use), I've always said I want to be cremated, do with the ashes as you will, unless a truly natural return-to-the-earth option becomes available. Roach describes a process for turning a human corpse into ready-to-use compost for planting memorial trees being developed in Sweden, and as I listened to its description, I wondered if it has become widely available yet since it has been ten years since Stiff was written and because it sounds pretty exciting. Again, thanks to Wikipedia:
For over 20 years, marine biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak has been developing a new form of ecological burial. The process involves freeze-drying the remains, which are then reduced to a white powder. The remains are then placed in a biodegradeable casket, which is then interred in a shallow grave. A memorial tree or bush can be placed above the interment site. Within a year, the contents have decomposed and have been converted to loam, nourishing the newly planted memorial. The company claims that this is ecologically friendly.
The first Promatorium was due to be opened in the Spring of 2011 in Sweden, followed shortly by sites in the UK and South Korea. However, as of April 2012, the first Promatorium (or Promator as Promessa Organic calls it) is still said to be '6 to 12 months' away from construction.
The process has so far never been tested on human remains. Tests on dead pigs has been claimed to show that much more brute force would be needed than what has been told. Initial backers of Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak and Promessa Organic -- Swedish funeral home Fonus and gas provider AGA AB -- have left the project after Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak reportedly has failed to provide evidence of the process being operational. Church of Sweden has ended their cooperation and sold off their company shares in Promessa Organic. Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak is claiming that she is being worked against by the Swedish crematory organisation and the funeral directors of Sweden. Professor in cellular biology and medicine, Bengt R Johansson of Gothenburg University, goes as far as calling the process surrounding the promessa method a fraud.
In several cases, the dead remains of people wanting to go through the promessa process has been waiting for up to ten years, in some cases resulting in forced burials to comply with Swedish burial law. The method itself has come under criticism for not being real.
Too bad. Too bad also that the custom of leaving the bodies of loved ones out for the vultures to take care of (one of several interesting customs I know of that were not included in Stiff) practised by Parsees and Tibetan Buddhists is also frowned upon in Western societies. I see that Mary Roach followed this book up with Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, and although that would dovetail nicely with this book and with Heaven is for Real (the last book I listened to), I don't think that I enjoyed this or learned enough from it to give the author another read. Might be interesting for some, but wasn't really for me.
