Tow #16 IRB: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (Part 2)

While I was reading Stiff, I could not help but wonder the entire time what Roach was going to do with her body once she died. She discussed multiple options throughout the book and in the final chapter. Some of the options for human remains were the traditional burial or cremation, while others were less traditional such as plastination, donating the brain to a brain bank, or donating the skeleton and leaving the rest of the body to be boiled away. The ending of this book is the part that was the best. After explaining all of the amazing things that cadavers can do, Roach leaves the reader dying to know what she will do. In order to explain to her audience of what she is going to do with her body, she uses the same witty humor that was present throughout the entire book as well as clear explanations of the pros and cons of each choice. For example, in the last few paragraphs of the book, Roach weighs out the pros and cons of donating her body to science. She would love to donate her body to science, but her squeamish husband may not want that. Roach does not want to make her death worse for her husband to handle. Although she is unclear of exactly what will happen to her body once she dies, the way she explains her reasoning makes the ending not only satisfying, but also convincing to follow what she does. Ultimately, Roach thinks that it is up to the living to decide what should be done with her body. Because she uses logical reasoning and her signature humorous style, the ending is tied up smoothly leaving the reader completely satisfied with having read the book.