STIFF Chapter 12: Quiz

1.) Describe the two steps involved in the harvesting of bones from a human cadaver.
a. To harvest bones from a human cadaver, a number of steps must be completed. First, the skin and muscle surrounding the bones must be cut away. Then, the residual meat and sinew must be dissolved by boiling the bones in a solution for a few weeks.

2.) What is plastination? What is the German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens, best known for plastinating?
a. Plastination is the process of taking organic tissue and replacing the water in it with a liquid silicone polymer, which turns the tissue into a permanently preserved version of itself. The German anatomist, Gunther von Hagens, is best known for plastinating whole human bodies. It took him years to complete it, but after he finished plastinating all of the human bodies, he put them in a museum to be a part of a display known as “Bodyworlds”.

3.) Describe the step-by-step process of being plastinated.
a. Plastination is an intricate and lengthy step-by-step process. First the body is washed in a tub. Second, the body is placed in a stainless-steel tank of acetone. The acetone drives water from the body’s tissue. Then, the cadavers are transferred to a whole-body plastination chamber filled with liquid polymer. A vacuum is attached to this tank which lowers the internal pressure which turns the acetone into a gas, drawing it out from the body. When the acetone is drawn out from the body, it leaves a space, that space is then filled with the liquid polymer. The body is then lifted out of the chamber and posed into a certain position. Then, a catalyst is rubbed into the skin and left for two days to harden. This plastination process will keep the body preserved for about 10,000 years.

4.) What are Mary Roach’s plans for her body after she dies? Why did she make this decision?
a. After Mary Roach dies, she plans to leave what happens to her body up to her husband. She worries that if she donated her body to science, her squeamish husband would have to picture her on a lab table knowing that anything mentioned in her book could be happening to her. She thinks it should be left up to immediate family members as to what is done with a loved one’s body after death, since they are the ones that have to continue to live thinking about it. However, she said that if her husband dies before her, then she will fill out the willed body form and be donated to science.