Exploring the Meaning of Death: Cadavers
The word cadaver, unlike some of the other words that
we use to describe the deceased, is almost unilaterally evocative of dead
bodies used in medical education, or scientific exploration. One of
the books required for this course is the book Stiff: The curious
lives of human cadavers. https://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers-ebook/dp/B00421BN2C/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=
It is by far one of my favorite “death”
books…and it helps answers some of the questions I always wondered about
prior to becoming a thanatologist!
Perhaps you, too, have wondered . . .
For this week, we will focus on Mary Roach’s book Stiff. I
highly recommend that you jot down your questions, your thoughts, and your “learnings” along
the way.
- Read
Introduction to “Stiff” - Choose
2 or more chapters from “Stiff” (if you can put it
down once you start reading it, that is) - Read
Chapter 5 from the Corr text - View
short video on how one medical school in Taiwan incorporates donated
cadavers for practicing surgical techniques - View
TED talk on cadaver treatment in Indonesia
Questions to answer:
In this discussion forum we will discuss “Stiff.”
Choose one chapter from the book and lead the discussion in
your thread on the chapter. Join in at least one other discussion on another
chapter. You will see that unlike the other weeks, I did not lock the discussion
forum, so you can see others’ posts prior to adding your own. I did that to
ensure that everyone wasn’t coming up with the same chapter questions…you
have to pick something unique! =)
If you repeat a chapter, take the discussion in a different
direction that the “other” thread on that chapter.
Put the chapter title in the title of your discussion thread.
This is not a technical reading but a reading to generate
conversation about how we define death, how we think about death and dead
bodies, and the relationship between who we are as spiritual beings and our
corporeal body. In your discussion thread, think about addressing questions
like these, or generate your own questions.
- What happens to “us” after
we die? - What difference does it make how our
corpse is treated after we die? - What seems to be a good
“use” for a corpse? - What are your thoughts on the two uses
of corpses that we saw in the videos? How does that relate to Chapter 5 in
the Corr book? - Your
own question of the Stiff chapter of your choice
The important part in discussion is to think about and
engage the reading and course content.
TED TALK Video: https://www.ted.com/talks/kelli_swazey_life_that_doesn_t_end_with_death?language=en
Medical School video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_eZrgKaXIE&feature=youtu.be
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