Summary of Mary Roach’s Stiff (EPUB)

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The human head is of the same approximate size and weight as a roaster chicken. I have never before seen a head in a roasting pan, but forty of them are resting faceup on what looks like a small pet-food bowl. The heads are for plastic surgeons to practice on.

#2 Objectification is a common coping method for those who must deal with human corpses. For physicians, objectification is mastered their first year of medical school, in the gross anatomy lab.

#3 The surgeons were at work, cutting up the heads. The flesh gave no resistance and yielded no blood. The heads looked like rubber Halloween masks. They also looked like human heads, but my brain had no precedent for human heads on tables or in roasting pans, so it had chosen to interpret the sight in a more comforting manner.

#4 The surgeons do not enjoy dissecting the heads of dead people, but they clearly value the opportunity to practice and explore on someone who isn’t going to wake up and look in the mirror anytime soon.