Abstract
By Norman L. Cantor. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2010, 372 pages, $26.95.
In After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver, Norman Cantor vividly illustrates nearly every possible disposition of the human body, from organ donation to cryogenic freezing, cremation to burial, and public exhibition to vulture victuals. As he describes it, Cantor's interest in this topic developed when his family discovered his stepbrother's wish for a Mardi-Gras style celebration in lieu of a traditional funeral following his death. Cantor, a distinguished professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School, watched as his stepfather and his sister-in-law argued as to whether or not his stepbrother's flamboyant wishes should be carried out. Eventually, Cantor's family agreed to the memorial celebration, leaving him to wonder who would have legally won out in the case of a stalemate, his sister-in-law and deceased stepbrother or his stepfather. This situation, in combination with flashy, sensational true-life examples of the rights of the cadaver (Ted Williams, anyone?) piqued Cantor's already lingering interest in the medico-legal aspects of law and lead him to sift through exorbitant amounts of data in the field of the legal rights of the human corpse. The end result of his extensive research is After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver, nearly 400 pages of cocktail party fodder including the intimate details of the embalming process, the evolution of body snatching for anatomical gifts to medical science, the legal aspect of extracting sperm from a cadaver, and an evaluation of cryogenic suspension as a way of achieving immortality.
Generally, After We Die follows suit with Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death which Cantor references several times in extensive, sometimes tiresome descriptions of politics and legalities. Cantor's book is less entertaining than Mary Roach's Stiff due in large part to the concentrated focus on the legal aspects of the human corpse, Cantor's specialty. His legal narratives can sometimes draw out what could have been an interesting commentary on a fascinating subject, but these instances are relatively infrequent. On the other hand, those medical types interested in public policy in the fields of death and dying may find Cantor to be sharp and well researched.
Significant insight was provided into legal issues most prominent in palliative medicine; concepts like consent, autonomy, brain death, withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments, organ harvesting, death pronouncement, and differing religious beliefs were all discussed in detail. Prominent court cases of our time and of the past are used as illustrations of how our legislative government is forming the once amorphous field of human rights once human attributes have gone.
Most of the book is a fun and lighthearted read. For those who have wondered what actually happens when your spouse buries you six feet under, Cantor has an answer. And let me tell you, it isn't pretty. Why six feet under as opposed to three? He has an answer for that, too. As a lay reader, I was particularly drawn to those common-day examples of death and disposition provided by Cantor. Ted Williams's cryogenically frozen head, the dispute over where to bury Anna Nicole's body, Jeffrey Dahmer's desire to ingest human remains, and Keith Richards's claim that he snorted his dead father's ashes mixed with cocaine are just some of the fun facts that kept me turning the page.
As a physician, I was drawn to Cantor's commentary on how we attribute pain to human corpses and the resulting banishment on postmortem examinations, his thoughts on how to increase organs available for donation, and the conflicts that arise between those who believe solely in the right to life versus those who believe strongly in quality of life. Decisions between personal choice and life at all costs were thoroughly dissected for the reader to analyze. Those of us who have bowed our heads in thanks to the cadavers we learned so much from in Gross Anatomy 101 may also find the section on grave robbing and the relationship to medical education appealing and relevant to the start of our own medical careers.
Although sometimes dry, Cantor provides many amusing examples of the issues surrounding people, dead and alive, to keep us reading. He certainly puts a new spin on the decision between cremation and burial. Why stop there when there are so many more interesting ways to make our exit?