1. Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
STIFF
Explores firsthand accounts of cadavers, a history of the use of cadavers, and an exploration of the surrounding ethical/moral issues
Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

2. Stiff Chapters Covered
Cadaver Who Joined the Army
Beyond the Black Box
Crimes of Anatomy
Life After Death

3. The Cadaver Who Joined the Army
Cadavers are used in the military to see the effects of bullets, explosives, and alternate munitions.
Used to compare/contrast the physiological effects and stopping power(knock someone off their feet) with different weapons.
WHO uses them?
United States, French Army, Swiss Military, German Military.
Other countries used cadavers as well, but these countries focus on similar purposes; effects of gunshots on human bodies.
FLAWS in Cadavers
In order to test stopping power, the object must be moving(not still like a cadaver)
Vary in density and thickness, age, gender, and difficult to clean up after.
Of course.. Leads to Alternatives!

4. The Cadaver Who Joined the Army(cont)
Artificial Alternatives to Cadavers
Ballistic Gellatin

5. The Cadaver Who Joined the Army(cont)
Alternatives to Cadavers…Since cadavers were not moving entities…
United States military used ‘beeves’… aka cattle to test stopping power. Also use pigs and goats.
European Countries use – like the USA – pigs the most for munitions trauma research.
China uses dogs for research.
Australia uses rabbits for research.
WHY – “The overall goal” – USA does this kind of research in attempts to save mankind;
Produce bullets that do not kill, but instead incapacitate.
Mistakes where Cadavers were not used.
(Korean War, Six thousand American Troops wore “armor that was not test yet, these soldiers were the test subjects; which cost them their lives”.

6. Beyond the Black Box
Using Cadavers to tell the story of a plane crash; where all left at the scene are the bodies of the passengers.
WHY? When a plane crashes…
Story of how it happened is unclear especially if the onboard black box is not recovered and if there are no survivors.
If a plane crashes in the ocean, most plane debris will sink to the bottom of the ocean
Bodies tend to float up after a plane crash. Evidence for plausible explanation for the crash.

7. Beyond the Black Box(cont)
Real Life Example: TWA Flight 800 – bound to Paris, blew up in Atlantic ocean not to far from NY state. Some suspect bomb, others suspect missiles.
How do we know? **Condition of bodies found will tell story**
If a bomb(things to take into consideration)
Intactness – use color codes to tell the level of intactness.
Green – Body Intact.
Yellow – crushed head or loss of one extremity
Blue – loss of 2 extremities with/without crushed head
Red – loss of 3 or more extremities or complete transection of body.
Numbers of Trajectories – when bombs explode, pieces of the bomb launch into those next to the explosion.
Results- Bodies were found intact and there were no traces of bomb shards found in passengers.
Cant be a bomb.
Missile?

8. Beyond the Black Box(cont)
How do we know? **Condition of bodies found will tell story**
If a missile(things to take into consideration)
Chemical Burns would be found from the missile. Burns would be found on the front of the body because the passenger’s backs were covered by a seat.
Results – Chemical burns found on passengers backs – jet fuel plausibly leaked after the crash and bodies that floated to the surface got their backs burned. Eliminates missile plausibility.
Other clues found since its not a bomb or missile
Thermal Burns(fire) – Bodies found burned but plane seats were burned much more. Tells us bodies must have been flung out of the seats before the crash. Once the plane broke apart, enormous force comes into play.
Body Condition – Massive internal trauma – caused by extreme water impact – shown over 70% of victims. Most bodies died from water impact, thus airplane exploded in the air.
Authorities suspected a wing fuel tank exploded; far enough from passengers leaving them intact, but enough damage to cause serious force on the body on the plane. Critical parts were recovered that concluded it was a fuel tank that exploded and caused the plane to explode midair.

9. Crimes of Anatomy Before contemporary Anatomy
What is Anatomy? :the art of separating the parts of an organism in order to ascertain their position, relations, structure, and function. Aka dissection.
Anatomy Today(before major ethical concerns)
Doctors, students, teachers, and researchers use cadavers – and mostly cadaver parts oppose from entire bodies – to study the human body.
People today have a lot of respect for the dead where they hold memorial services for the bodies which tend to be unnamed individuals.
People also give them names and personality in respect to the cadaver, but also justifying to themselves that this just is not a resource of knowledge, but also was a person.

10. Crimes of Anatomy(cont) Before contemporary Anatomy
Egypt, Circa 300 B.C : King Ptolemy – known as Father of Anatomy
First leader to say it was okay to cut open the dead, and see how the body worked.
Over time lost his morals in the search of knowledge(shortage of cadavers influenced his decisions as well)
Vivisected over 600 criminals(live dissection)
**Trend of using criminals as cadavers skyrocketed during 18th and 19th centuries**
Britain followed the trend – once anatomy schools flourished with students, more cadavers were needed for research at a time when people did not donate their bodies to science. Issues on resources led to unethical solutions to the cadaver shortage.
Sources of Cadavers
Executioners – Labeled dissection as a plausibly punishment for crime.
if someone killed a man, they would be hung, then dissected.
Poor and sick were sources.
One anatomist; William Harvey dissected his own father and sister for research. He was famous for discovering the human circulatory system.
**With the shortage of cadavers, schools became the place where they would purchase cadavers**

11. Crimes of Anatomy(cont)
Aftermath of cadaver shortage during 18th/19 century.
Anatomists would sneak into graveyards and dig up corpses for research
Body snatching became a new crime which was not a punishable crime before the shortage. People also stole jewels from the dead.
Resulted in…
Anatomists hiring others to dig up bodies…underground corpse digging industry.
Full time/Part time body snatchers worked during dissecting season (Oct – May)
By 1828 there were 10 full timers, and 200 part timers. Pay worked up to $1000 a year, more than average unskilled laborer w/ summers off.
Digging Process took less than an hour.
These were known as Resurrectionists.

12. Crimes of Anatomy(cont)
Aftermath continued…
People were angry about resurrectionists which lead to the creation of newer graves. Graves to keep resurrectionists out.

13. Crimes of Anatomy(cont)
Aftermath continued…creating cadavers
Burke and Hare; a couple that owned a boarding house.
Found a way to make money when one of their residents was found dead. They sold the body to make back the money lost on the deceased individual.
Because it was not difficult to sell a corpse, it set off a trend of killings where Burke and Hare would intentionally kill their patients, and sell them to anatomists.
Modern Burke and Hare killings
Brazil faces issues on where civilians are being killed, and sold for money.
Poor tend to be the main targets in the slums. They are deceived into plausible job opportunities – cover up to get the poor to come into places(hospitals, businesses)
Removal of Cadavers
The human body creates a lot of intolerable odor, and a mess of decaying body parts.Creative solutions were found to solve the disposal issue
People would melt the bones along with fat of the cadavers “ a substance like spermaceti”, and use it to create candles and even soap.

14. Crimes of Anatomy(cont)
Do we need to dissect cadavers?
Acient China prohibited dissection on humans. Huang Ti – Chinese doctor figured out – without ever dissecting a body – that the heart rules over all other organs.
Imperial Rome prohibited dissections on humans. Galen – very well known anatomist – figured out a lot about the human body by not dissecting human beings; but by analyzing the wounds on gladiators.
Today – We have a substantial amount of information on humans. Collected over dissections from the past. Why still dissect?
College Courses are straying away when it comes to dissecting the entire human body, instead they focus on key anatomical features and systems – organs and their meanings
Lots of information on internet -

15. Life After Death On human decay and what can be done about it
What can there be done about it?
Embalming – Involves the use of the circulatory system to deliver a liquid preservative to the bodies cells’ and delay human decay.
Origin (History of Embalming)
Began during the Civil War; needed a way to deliver bodies home before decomposition began
Thomas Holmes (Father of embalming) Over 35,000 soldiers were embalmed uncluding Abraham Lincoln(transferring his body from Washington to Illinois)

16. Life After Death(cont) On human decay and what can be done about it
Before Embalming
Eye Caps are added to keep the eyes shut
Corpse Cleaned
Small water hoses uses to clean orifices
Aspirator – Vacuum to take out unwanted contents in stomach.
Shave body carefully
Stich jaw closed(naturally opens when deceased)
Embalming gone wrong

17. Life After Death(cont) On human decay and what can be done about it
Whats done about it today
Human Decay Research Facility – studies decay of human cadavers. This information can be used to help in criminal forensics by looking at biological and chemical phases that occur in decomposition
Examples of information used
Potassium levels in Eyes
Algor Mortis(drop of temperature hourly)
Rigor Mortis(hardening of muscles in body)
If Dead more than 3 days
Age of larvae and stages of decay become the answers.
11 minutes

18. Life After Death(cont) On human decay and what can be done about it
Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. New York: W.W. Norton &, Print.