STIFF: Chapters 1 & 2 Summary

To the average person, reading about human heads being compared to that of rotisserie chickens may be a bit uncomfortable. However, that is exactly what you would find attending a facial anatomy and face-lift refresher course. The human heads were put on display by a woman named Theresa. She was in charge of also choosing the color of the cloth sheets, lavender for this particular day, which would be placed over each cadaver head while the plastic surgeons waited to begin. Another woman, Yvonne was also helping out with this event. Her official title was the Lab Manager, which meant that it was her job to remove the heads from the cadaver bodies with the use of a saw. Through talking for a while with Theresa, we learn that by viewing these human heads as objects rather than the human heads they actually are, it is much easier to do the job. These surgical seminars are crucially helpful for surgeons looking for refreshing practice before they put the scalpel into their patients. Marilena, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, was attending the convention to learn how to better do the facelift procedure. She thought it would be a huge benefit to the patient that she brush up on her face lift techniques prior to the time of the actual surgical procedure. It is difficult however, for these conventions to even be able to take place. With priority for cadavers to be sent to anatomy labs, many surgical conventions, where cadavers are actually present, are fairly rare. Ronn Wade, the director of the Anatomical Services Division at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine, is currently working to change this system and offer a better balance to suite both needs.
Throughout history, there have been numerous ways people, usually holding a high rank in the area of anatomy, would go about collecting bodies to study. Beginning in Egypt, not only were bodies cut open and dissected as a part of the mummification process, but the King during 300 B.C. deemed it acceptable to use executed criminals for the sole purpose of dissection. Those beliefs continued well into sixteenth century Britain. However, since the laws of that time included crimes such as stealing a pig and killing a man to be punishable by death, the government decided another severe punishment needed to be included in addition to just death. Toward the eighteenth century, it became law that for the severe crimes, like murder, the criminal would face death and his body would then be sent to an anatomy lab as a cadaver. These new practices didn’t solve the cadaver shortages anatomists were still facing though. With several anatomists not comfortable with “cutting up” their own deceased family members, many had to resort to stealing bodies. Some anatomy instructors would even encourage their students to go on late night grave-raids if they weren’t comfortable stealing the bodies themselves. This evolved into what seemed like a black market for dead bodies. People took it upon themselves, once they realized there was money to be made, to steal bodies for the purpose of using them as cadavers for the field of medicine. Realizing that the anatomy problem had “gotten quite out of hand”, the British Parliament questioned if to learn the study of anatomy, one really needed to practice on actual non-living human bodies. Clearly, coming to the conclusion that it is absolutely necessary for soon-to-be medical professionals to get a sneak peak on deceased individuals rather than seeing inside of a human for the first time on a living individual, Parliament decided something needed to be brought forth to have a larger community of available cadavers. In the 1960’s, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act was passed. This act raised awareness of the need for organs for transplantation and of body donation as an option. Along with the passing of this new act and the increasing cost of funerals, more and more people have come around to the idea of anatomical gift giving.