In chapter six, The Cadaver Who Joined the Army, Mary Roach focuses on scientific testing involving weapons. She discusses in depth the processes used when testing these weapons on cadavers (and ballistics) and how ethics creates a barrier in further research with cadavers. Starting with the history dating back to 1892, Roach tells the story of Captain Louis La Garde. She tells that after and experiment of shooting cadavers to test the physiological effect of different guns on the human body and how Garde influenced a movement on ballistics work on cadavers for a more humanitarian approach on gun battle. He proposed that stopping someone opposed to killing them weas a better option, otherwise know as incapacitation. Another main point brought up in this chapter is the psychological theory- the idea that people who know they have been shot act more accordingly, falling the ground quickly while animals and some Native Americans can continue in battle long after being shot. Opposing the psychological theory, the neurological overload is also believed to be the reason of the stopping affect some people get after being shot or harmed. This is explained that the reticular activating system is to blame, when rcieving signals of pain, it shuts certain muscles down (including the legs) which cause the collapse.the neural overload can also be caused by the "stretch cavity", the point of entry of the bullet in the body the stretch causes an overload in the circuits of the body, temporarily causing the body to shut down.. Pigs are used for this research instead of cadavers for the ethical reason and also because pigs have very similar organ structure. To test this, scIentists shoot animals until they stop moving and record levels of chemicals in the body. Roach also experiments with ballistics gelatin, a resource that is muscle-like and can display similar reactions that a human body would make. This is often chosen over real cadavers so people do t have to hear if their relatives bodies being used as a shooting dummy, the material a are easy to retrieve, and also the a cleanup is a lot easier. The last experiment explored by Roach is the testing of armor for the military. Some organizations risk losing their funding if they use cadavers because it is considered disrespectful, but one organization in Houston, Texas has taken the courageous leap to test footwear for the military in land mines. Granted, it may become an emotional distress lawsuit, this organization experiments in good faith, trying to find the best gear for our soldiers. This chapter ends with Roach's personal preference of donating her body to be a cadaver. She believes that using her body for science is beneficial and she wouldn't mind if she was used to be shot at or blown up.
Posted with Blogsy