HW 50 - First Third of Care of the Dead Book Post

Stiff

Mary Roach

Published 2004, New York, NY

There are many different ways for corpses to be handled. People are going to find my book disrespectful. At the face lift/anatomy refresher course I'm observing, there are about forty heads, partial neck included, sitting in drip pans on lavender clothed tables. Lavender was chosen because it can be soothing to doctors who become disgusted by the cadaver's head that they're working on. Surgeons benefit from opportunities like this, but sometimes it's hard to find body parts to work with. Ronn Wade is trying to change the system to surgeons have more access to body parts. If surgeons want to practice a technique, they form a group, call Wade, and pay him for the lab and cadavers. Surgeons are rarely given practice opportunities because learning in school is similar to the experience of an apprenticeship- they learn their techniques from observing and then trying. The technique of observing to learn is similar to the operating theaters used in the nineteenth century. Bransby Cooper preformed a bladder stone removal on Stephen Pollard. There was no anesthesia because it wasn't used during surgery until 1846. The tools Cooper was using were ineffective, so he stuck his finger into the open wound, and with no luck, measured his finger length to those of the men observing him. Eventually the stone was removed and Pollard went to bed, but he died of an infection in just over a day. I asked one of the surgeons I'm observing if she's going to donate her body when she dies. She tells me no, reasoning that some surgeons aren't as respectful of the cadavers as they could be. 

Herophilius, the "father of anatomy", was the first physician to dissect human bodies. Soon his dissections moved on to live criminals. Using executed criminals for dissection carried over to the the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain.

Quotes:

"Being dead is absurd. It's the silliest situation you'll ever find yourself in. Your limbs are floppy and uncooperative. Your mouth hangs open. Being dead is unsightly and stinky and embarrassing, and there's not a damn thing to be done about it." (11)

"For most physicians, objectification is mastered their first year of medical school" (21)

"When you take a photograph of a patient for a medical journal, you have the patient sign a release. The dead can't refuse to sign releases, but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't want to. This is why cadavers in photographs...have black bars over their eyes" (32)

"You do not question an author who appears on the title page as "T.V.N. Persaud, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.Path. (Lond.), F.F.Path. (R.C.P.I.), F.A.C.O.G."(53)

"The people of the 1800s seemed to feel that burial culminated in a fate less ghastly than that of dissection". (57)

While reading I began to think more and more about the respect that people have for the dead. These thoughts came on because a lot of the first chapters focused on ethics. Different things effect different people. I found it interesting when one of the surgeons told Mary that she wouldn't donate her body to study because some doctors take pictures of their cadavers. I thought, of all things to find disrespectful; a photo? A cadaver no longer has a conscience and can no longer make a decision, but when they did have a conscience, they made the decision to donate their body. Along with their donation might come photos of their body- not necessarily for pleasure, but for learning. Another "aspect" of respect that I thought about was that after death, people are somewhat idolized. I don't mean that they become some martyr for a cause or a new religious symbol; the people who cared for them during their life begin to talk about all of the amazing things that they had done in their life. If you've ever sat in on a memorial service or a funeral, people decorate their deceased loved ones with words of praise and glory. Once in a while there'll be someone slightly honest enough to say "____, while stubborn...." and will add a little something negative to their spiel. I realize that this part of analysis sort of took away from the main objective of the book, but I still believe that respect is an important part of what Roach is projecting through her book.

HW 48 - Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

Before this assignment, I never actually knew what my parents wanted to happen to their bodies when they die. Maybe it was for them to "protect" me from thinking about death. Both of my parents want to be cremated after death. My mom said that she thought the idea of rotting away in a box wasn't too pleasant. She'd rather have her ashes scattered in parts of Hawaii where she and my dad went for their honeymoon. My dad said that he's not too sure but he'd want them spread somewhere in the U.S. so it would be easier for me to do it. He said that "getting through customs in other countries with a box of ashes is probably a very difficult task to complete". My mom didn't really touch on previous family members' deaths, but my dad talked about his parent's remains. Both of them wanted their bodies donated for scientific study. His dad passed first, and his body got "lost", so our family never got his ashes back. With my grandmother's body, "there was a paper trail to follow, so it made the entire process easier on us".

***To be continued

HW 47 - Peer Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

When interviewing some friends about the current unit "Care of the Dead", I found that there was a general sense of uncomfortableness. One of my friends, S, said, "This topic is weird". Maybe I didn't approach the conversation correctly; simply asking "Can I interview you?", without telling them what our conversation would be about. Nonetheless I learned some interesting things about some of my friends. S, a longtime friend, actually already has an after death plan, "I already have a plot with my family in a cemetery". Later in our conversation she mentioned that she has thought about cremation though, and would want her ashes spread out. I asked her why, "No real reason, but it seems like the most loving and back to nature-y and freeing option I guess". Actually, the consistent answer amongst my interviewees was that they wanted to be cremated. H and SM thought that the idea of their remains sitting in a box underground was creepy. H went on to say that she would want her friends and family to gather at some point after her death and just talk, "When my uncle died, my whole family needed to just let it out. It's important because a lot of people are isolated, and grief is often better expressed in groups of people. Gathering helps to relieve stress or anger or whatever a person may be feeling, because they have a chance to let it all out". 


Another interesting thing that H and I discussed was that she didn't want people to cry. "It seems kinda stupid. Like, I appreciate they're upset about me through crying, but that sort of thing happens. You can be upset, but just don't make a huge scene out of it just for a show. be happy that I at least got some time to live my life and interact with people". This sparked a general question in my head; why do people cry when someone dies? I wonder if there is some sort of subconscious fear of death that is ignited when they are faced with the death of someone they knew well. Yes, the crying probably also has to do with the fact that a person will never interact with their dead loved one again (unless they believe in certain paths after life), but there is more to human emotion than meets the eye. 

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

The other day I turned to my friend Kady and said, "If I were to die, I'd want you to throw a party". I'm not sure where the initial thought came from, I don't think we were even talking about death. She looked at me confused and said, "What, are you planning on dying anytime soon?". I explained to her that I wasn't, but that the idea of a celebration seemed nice. Instead of associating death with sorrow, we could associate death with happiness. This conversation reminded me of when Beth came in to speak to us. I remember that she mentioned that instead of having a sad funeral for Erik, they celebrated his life with friends and family. That sounded nice to me.

My general belief in what should happen to bodies once death has taken place, is that bodies should be treated with care, with no alteration, unless otherwise specified by the subject's will, and whether the body is cremated or buried is up to the "loved ones". I personally would probably like to be buried. I have nothing against cremation, I think that spreading someone's ashes can actually be a beautiful ritual, but I don't think that there's any place I'd want my ashes spread.

During class I said this wouldn't be a hard unit to do. I think I lied. This wont be hard for me emotionally, but it's a tough subject to work through. I can't even get my first thoughts down. My mind just keeps jumping from subject to possible subject, and I don't know where to begin. There are so many different subjects of possible examination; funeral homes, cremation, religious rituals, the cost. 

Some questions I have left over after all of this thinking:

- What are some rituals practiced in other countries surrounding the care of the dead?
- Why do we bury our dead? Why do we cremate them?
- How does cremation work?
- Are coffins completely sealed?
- Six feet under- any other specific reasons other than stench?

HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Comments I made:
Sophia: 
Your work focused on the question "Why do people choose to have children or not?". This was a unique subject that we did not examine in class and I thought that it was nice to hear about a new perspective of birth. Your project mattered to me because I think about the future a lot and whether or not I'll have children.

I think to further your project you could have gotten a little more "personal" and maybe interviewed your parents or something on the subject.

Great job! 

Lucas:
Your project involved you visiting 2 hospitals as well as interviewing Hunter students.

I had the privilege of seeing your video with audio, and there is most definitely a difference in the two experiences. I thought that your project was unique, which I enjoyed. The interviews you did were my favorite part because they are what I can relate to the most. When we started this unit I didn't have a complete grasp on pregnancy and birth, just like the people you interviewed.

I think that to improve this project, you could write a bit about your video.

Nice work!  
****Note that there was no text when I wrote the comment

Naima:
The courses you described sounded amazing. I liked that your focus was on becoming a doula/being a part of birth because it relates to things we talked about in class, but hearing what your aunt had to say was a new point of view. I actually considered going through doula training for my project as well, but I didn't know how well it would turn out without the actual training (since the next available session was in May).
Your project though, came out really well and I think that the interview/your personal connection (step-mother) really added extra emotion into the project which I feel is a hard thing to do when such a stiff word (in my opinion) like "project" is being used.

I hope to hear more about your training and your perspective on your step-mother's birth experience  

Comments on my Blog:  

Andy:
After a sweet personal opening story you focused on some peer reactions to the practice of adoption by same-sex couples.
This topic matters to me because it feels like it touches the heart of whether GLB folks will be allowed to be full members of the community (abstract) and also because I've met some wonderful GLB parents (relational). From a different than usual angle your topic addresses one of the essential issues in our sexual politics - should gay love be treated as poisonous or as beautiful - should GLB people be considered valuable and good and healthy or sick and toxic and evil?

I would have appreciated more from you on this topic. More interviews - GLB parents work in our building and send their children to our building. GLB students attend our school and some plan to parent.

More follow-up - did Casey feel mixed or not? Did Abdul have more reasons for his stance and did those reasons seem coherent to him and to you? (BTW - be careful about labelling people on the blog - "homophobic" sounds very pejorative - although it might (or might not) be accurate it doesn't make sense to focus negative attention from the WWW on a classmate. Please edit this.)

More research - what governmental and adoption agency policies currently impede or support adoption by GLB people? What organizations and efforts currently focus on this topic and how can we help them?

Thank you for your work.

Sophia:
You started with a personal story and then interviewed people on their thoughts regarding same-sex adoption. I liked how you explained your earlier confusion about the subject - this made it clear why you chose to investigate this particular topic. Your research and interviews matter to me because they highlight differing opinions - someone said that the child might be affected if they didn't have a role model of gender, but your research implies that this wouldn't matter, the child would be fine. One thing you could have done was interview a same sex couple, or the adopted child of a same sex couple, to get their perspective.

Lucas:
I think your project has a very good base question, and I don't really think GLB couples should be treated differently from heterosexual couples when it comes to parenting and birth, besides the changes that I think should apply to everyone, such as a reduction in doctor-managed hospital births in favor of more home births.

I think a possible improvement could have been to interview more people, but other than that I think it was very good.

Do GLB even have to mention their sexual orientation when adopting? If so, do you think it should be allowed? It almost seems like a predisposition towards discrimination.

Beatrice:
Hi Elizabeth. I liked how you started off with anecdote about your childhood friends with same sex parents, good transition in to your topic.

I find this this topic interesting because I too believe gay couples should be allowed to adopt (and get married).

One thing you could've done to improve your project would be to have done more research and used more statistics and maybe quotes from psychologists or more relevant matter than just your points of view.

All in all good work!  
 

Dad:
This is the kind of topic that can stimulate endless conversation, both pro and con. While it’s been awhile since they were your schoolmates, it might have been interesting, time permitting, to contact Hanna and Ella and get some feedback about their lives today. It’s interesting how your current classmates could have such differing points of view, one so positive and one so negative. One of my best friends growing up has no tolerance for anything other than “conventional, normal” lifestyles and yet we continue to be good friends. As you might imagine, when we get together it makes for interesting conversation.

Sara B (10th Grader @ different school):
I liked how you opened your post with your first impression of same-sex households. This was especially relatable for me because I remember Ella and her 2 dads! Then you went on to discuss what peers think now, providing an interesting contrast to when you're younger and simply confused.

M brings up an interesting point about kids being raised by same-sex couples not having a role model from the other gender, but I guess instead comes more openess to what may be considered nontraditional. I also read once that same-sex couples tend to have a more equal distribution of doing work around the house (cooking, dishes, laundry, etc) which may or may not have an effect on the child.

Either way, I agree with your conclusion that adopted kids of same-sex couples can certainly turn out alright, if not better :)

Sarah M:

Your topic on same-sex adoption was one that I hadn't seen in anyone else's projects. Your interviews with two different points of view allowed some light to be shed on how people think. While it was a pretty small amount of interviewees, I think people can still get a sense of why because of your clarifications or inner monologue throughout the essay. I alos enjoyed the way you started off the piece. It sounded really cool and grabbed my attention quickly.

John:
Your project description immediately engaged the reader giving me a very vivid image of your own childhood and how the project relates to your own experiences and interests. your body paragraphs review your field research with some statistical background and your own analysis of why its important. what i liked was how you were immediately able to grab my attention on a topic that normally id be a bit uneasy to talk about. i think your conclusion was done well to give the reader i way to interpret the data how she wishes and indicating a conclusion but keeping it safe because of the lack of field research. which brings me to what i think you should improve on, your summary of data was great and i think if you were to have a deeper analysis by getting more field research that would be optimal. i am ofcoarse aware that the time was too limited to have many interviews done that are meaningful. thanks for the post i enjoyed reading it.

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

When I was in elementary school, I had a friend named Hannah. She had the coolest house to play hide-and-seek in and one of those ceiling fans with giant fake crayons for propellers. But something was different about Hannah. She had two mothers, and was darker skinned than both of them. This confused me. I always pictured families as mommy, daddy, and baby. Never mommy, mommy, and baby. I also had a friend named Ella. Unlike Hannah, she had two dads. I was quite confused so I asked my mom why Hannah and Ella didn't have a mommy and a daddy, and why neither of them looked like their mommies or daddies. She told me that Hannah's moms loved each other and Hannah, and Ella's dads loved each other and Ella, and that love was what mattered in a family. 

I interviewed a few people on the topic of same-sex adoption to see what people understood about it and what they believed about it. One person, who will be called K, began by saying, "you can interview me, but I don't know much about the topic. I don't know that it's very common". I found that interesting because, in fact, there are at least 10 million children being raised in gay or lesbian households (6). K went on to tell me that she believes that gay people should have the right to adopt because, "disallowing people to adopt can only make a situation worse" because then there would be more children without loving households. She also said that just because a child is raised in a homosexual household, the parents aren't going to teach the child to be gay if that's something people are worried about. But getting into more depth, our conversation moved into the idea of a normal family. "Sometimes I guess people see marriage as the bond between a man and  woman, and in order to have children, they should be married; so that could be another issue". But overall, K was very supportive of homosexual adoption.


On the other hand, I interviewed another classmate, A. Our interview started bluntly, "Do you believe that gay couples should be allowed to adopt children?" 
"No."
"Okay, but why?"
"Because they're gay,"
"And why is it bad for a child to be raised in a homosexual household?"
Hearing our conversation, another classmate, M, joined in, "Maybe because the child wouldn't have a role model for each gender. They might not have a father or mother figure to look up to, and maybe that's an important component of childhood". A immediately agreed and said, "yeah, that's it. Are we done?"

I approached a few other people in hopes to interview them, but no such luck. They either said that they didn't know anything about adoption or they were too busy. I'd like to further this project by delving more into the legalities of same-sex adoption. I can't really come to a powerful conclusion based off of the two interviews I've done, but from my own personal experiences as well as minor research on the subject, I am confident that a child growing up in a same-sex household will be just as, if not more, successful than a child raised in a mother-father environment.

Bibliography

1. "Placing Children." Adoption Statistics. Adoption Statistics, 2011. Web. 3 Apr 2011. . 

2. "Ethics of Adoption Financing ." Child Welfare Information Gateway. U.S. Dept. Health Services, n.d. Web. 3 Apr 2011 . 

3. "PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act." (2010): 1-8. Web. 

4. "Pros and Cons of Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.

5. "Same Sex Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011. 

6. "Gay & Lesbian Adoption Rights." Love and Pride (2008). http://www.loveandpride.com/informationcenter/tips.aspx?categoryid=7 

HW 41 - Independent Research

Adoption Research

Annotated Bibliography

"PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act." (2010): 1-8. Web. 

Parents for Ethical Adolescents (PEAR)'s opposed the Families for Orphans Act (FFOA). The organization opposes it because it incorporates more money and government into the adoption system. The main idea is that it is wrong to add incentives to adoption because it will encourage families to adopt not out of love, but for profit. The main concern from PEAR is that rather than improving the current adoption system, the FFOA would simply make it even harder for children to find safe and loving homes. 

"Pros and Cons of Adoption." Child Adoption Matters. Child Adoption Matters, 2010. Web. 1 Apr 2011.

Read: 
PEAR Statement on Families for Orphans Act
Families for Orphans Act (FFOA)

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