Stiff 3rd Chunk, Pg #146-219

Mary Roach continues on in the next few chapters to further describe how cadavars are used, how said cadavers were distinguished from the living, and Roach even raises the question of what makes a person a person. First, the author explains how the dead were used to prove the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin by using many quotes and historical facts. Later, Roach chronicels her experience at California's San Fransisco Medical Center. She states that the difference between the living and the dead. The living are "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."(167), while the dead are " wheeled by a single person, calmly and with little notice." But as she continues on, Roach relizes that a beating heart cadavar is "flanked by caregivers with long strides and set faces, steadying IV's, pumping ambu bags, barreling into double doors."

Clarification: Pg 204
Was Gamahut alive for a short amount of time, when Laborde ran the currents through his head. Was his head attatched to his body, or was it just Gamahut's head?

Application:
In your oppinion, what makes a person a person? Do you think that a beating heart cadavar could be classified as a person, or is a person classified by thier soul, spirit or personality? Or maybe even thier brain function?

Stiff 2nd Chunk (Pg 74-148)

In Marry Roach's Stiff, she explores the many uses that cadavars have, in not only anatomical reasearch but how they can be used in vehicular crash tests, to understand the severity of chest injuries in them, as well as to understand, by looking at the cadavar's wounds, what actually happened in a plane crash. All the while she is explaining the benefits of these cadavars, she adds in imagery, humor, and anecdotes about heself concerning the topic at hand. Earlier in the chapter Roach uses vivid imagery to describe what happend to a live person simulating the impacts of a real car crash. This man named Albert King was "slammed in the chest by a twenty-two-pound metal pendulum. He has hurled one knee repetedly against a metal bar outfitted with a load cell."(pg 94) (a load cell is a device that converts force into electrical signals.) By telling of the many injuries a real person, who can feel pain, goes through, Roach hilights the use of cadavars, who feel no pain at all. Roach then uses expert opinions to explain that just by looking at the wounds of a victim one can determine the cause of a plane crash and the events that unfolded. With the further use of anecdotes and historical facts, Roach tells of research done many years ago as to why a man falls to the floor after being shot.
Discussion Questions:
Clarification: In the first few pages of chapter five, did Roach or her colleage ever refer to the "victims" or "survivors" of the plane crash as cadavars?
Application: Do you think that it is better to use cadavars in place of animals in things such as bullet research?