Benefits Of Body Donation To Science Philosophy Essay

The novel Stiff was a very interesting book in terms of subject. The topic throughout it was about cadavers, something a lot of us never thought about or even knew what the term actually meant. She started off telling us where the science of dissecting dead corpses comes from and went on about everything that could happen to one’s body if were donated to science. By doing this, she talks in a lot of medical terms. This made it hard for me to read. There would be explanations that would make me drift off and forget what I had just read, so I would have to read it again, that way I could understand it. I like that her sarcastic humor came out through her words in the book. It made it not as serious as it could have been. I would say that I liked the book half and half. One half thinks that the subject matter was a really fascinating one and that she covered just about everything I would think to ask about it, but part of me says that if it was not for my teacher assigning the book to read, I probably would not had read it.

Some people ask themselves, should I donate my body to science and with my research and my own personal opinion, I say, why not? The human race often wonders about their options to place one’s cadaver. In some religious beliefs and traditions, this question is already answered for them. Others without a biblical fall back think, what even happens to the condition of my body when I die? They would start to assess things and look over their options. People have many sources and ways of finding out how to plan for his or her death. Talking to an advocate for donating your body to science would inform the person all the benefits to mankind by simply giving them your cadaver, but this act of favoritism, to such a very big gesture, would set thoughts in your mind that would pertain too, are these people just trying to sell the idea to me so ill do it? And is this person not telling me everything? After all, you would be dead and could not get out of that fate you thought you were in control of. This report will help you make your decision on whether or not you should donate your body to science by stating the facts.

So what happens to your body when you die? Many people can assume it rots and slowly decomposes, which is all factual, so, why is the most common way of getting rid of your cadaver the traditional burial in a casket in the ground if this is common knowledge? People feel the need to preserve the human body, when in turn who does it benefit? Donating your body to science may be a modern way of looking at things but it is also a realistic way too. There are many different situations where the condition of your body changes when you die. For instance, In Tennessee, there is a decomposed farm of human cadavers (the only one in America) where they put the bodies in different temperatures and areas to see how they would decompose. The body may be a sacred thing to some people and they may want to keep it safe so it lasts but a cadaver is organic, it will eventually rot and more blatantly turn into nothing. So why not have the last thing you do on this Earth be the unconceded deed of helping your fellow man by giving them your cadaver?

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

The number one outcome of how a person’s dead body is left is often affected by one’s religious views. Mankind for as back as time goes, has questioned what the afterlife really was, if there was even one; if there is a heaven or a hell. In India, 78% of the population chooses the method of cremation. This is because in most of their religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, they believe that the body is just a vessel and that it does not really matter what happens to said vessel for after an individual passes, the spirit is what is preserved and the body is just part of the world again, like the grass or dirt. This circle of life thinking is how many people go about their plans with placing their cadavers somewhere. Religions like Orthodox Judaism and Islam however, do not believe this. They think that the body is a sacred thing and that it should be persevered. There are some religions though that are a little on the edge with what to do with one’s dead body. Christians do not have a problem with cremation only if they choose it for reasons that do not contradict the teachings of the Christian faith.

There are far more options with the placement of our dead bodies than we know what to do with, which is why choosing to donate it to science has always been a hesitant decision. One route you could take would be the common burial of one’s corpse. The same elements that are in the ground, give or take, are in our bodies and organs also. In a way it is like recycling, one person consumes and takes so much from our planet earth when living, that when dead, you are buried back in the soil where it takes the nutrients back from your body that it had given it. In a matter of speaking, that is science, maybe not the advancement of the subject but science nevertheless. People should consider this option as in alternative for donating their bodies to science if having your dead parts dismembered from you is unappealing. When I suggest this though, I do not mean being selfish and burying oneself in the ground in a wood or metal coffin to rot and decompress of. They could give it to science to either help promote a better future for people so that we can better our world or to feed the soil, in a matter of speaking. A cadaver is 100% biodegradable yes, but in some ways it is dangerous leaving dead bodies to decompose by themselves. While the process is going on, dead bodies give off an extreme amount of carbon dioxide. When a body is being buried, they have to make sure that it is deep enough so that the living people above do not get a disease from it. So still the safer bet would be to give your cadaver to the advancement of science.

Another way people could choose to dispose of their dead body would be cremation. The percentage of cremations is gradually increasing over years and has become the second most common way of getting rid of cadavers. What some people do not know is that the process of it, where they set fire to the corpse, the ashes create dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide and pollute the atmosphere. This is bad for the health of people if done too much and can be very bad for the environment. Some may brush that fact aside because there are already so many contributors to the pollution of our sky that they would not think that the pollution of one body would make that big of a difference but it does. Nothing pollutes like a dead body. One or two pounds of ashes come from the fire and go up in the smoke. Nicholas Albery, Natural Death Centre director and an editor of The New Natural Death Handbook states over the topic.”Anyone with green pretensions should think twice about cremation.”

People who donate their bodies to science are really thinking about the well- being of other people rather than themselves. Doing this kind and generous act would help better medical research and help save people’s lives. When you die, the average funeral costs seven thousand and five hundred dollars. This is not including your tombstone and plot in a grave yard. All of this is most likely paid by your relatives in charge and can put a hefty financial weight on them as well as an emotional one. There are alternatives to this problem for people who do not like the sound of that. A person nowadays can pre pay and arrange for their funeral to be paid off so that there is not so much of a burden on the family members, but still, it costs a lot of money that could be given to let’s say your grandchildren. If you gave your body to science, you would not just be thinking conservatively with your money but would be considering your family’s needs and feelings by doing so.

There are plenty of benefits when a person donates his or her body to science. Ones that I have stated before include the no cost, the advancement of science and medical research for the betterment of medical devices and the treatment of patients, and the fact that the last thing you did on the Earth was the generous gesture of giving your cadaver to science to help the human race. If people were to stop donating their dead bodies, the medical field would no longer go forward and it would take a very long time to figure out ways to cure dieses. Students studying anatomy would come to a standstill because of the lack of bodies to study on. Mankind needs human cadavers to abate the problems in today’s medical world.

Some people may have concerns with donating their cadavers to science, which is natural to ask questions about it because people hear such scary stories on what really goes on with the medical research they do on them but does it really matter? Students in colleges take apart organs in cadavers and decapitate their heads so that they can work with the facial area. This all goes towards the teachings of the anatomy. They have to dismember and take apart the human body in order to learn about it. It just makes sense. So why should it matter if they chop your cadaver up? As long as it is for science and it is for learning about it, then they could do whatever they needed to do to get that accomplished because that is the original reason why you donated your body in the first place.

So those people that ask themselves, should I donate my body to science and with my research and my own personal opinion, I say, why not? There are many cons to donating your body to science, like the fact that all your parts will be taken from you and laid out for everyone to see, but the biggest and possibly the only pro to doing this would be that it is very important in today’s society. People need to do this because there is such a high demand for cadavers for colleges and medical studies, that it would cause mass chaos if people did not donate their bodies to science. Mankind needs something back in return and that is your cadaver.