Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab - Explore Life's Fragility Through Medical Science | Perfect for Medical Students, Philosophy Readers & Mortality Reflection" （注：原标题已是英文且文学性较强，SEO优化时保留了核心文学价值，补充了受众群体和使用场景）

We have all thought of death. We have all imagined our bodies rotting after death. Many prefer incinerating their bodies, preferring ashes to decaying flesh. However, not all religions allow cremation, and thus, some of us are stuck with living with the thought of a decaying body. This thought is scary to most of us.All of life is about death and decay. Every day, people around us die. Within our own body, death looms all the time. Cells in my body are dying as I write this. Indeed, we are born to die. And maybe we die to be reborn, sort of like a computer reboot. Some scientists believe death is beneficial to evolution, knocking off the weak genes and improving them in subsequent generations. If we all lived forever, evolution would have no opportunity to improve us. Death can therefore be looked upon as a way of improving ourselves, or an evolutionary upgrade. Any of you been watching the TV series Heroes?In this book, you will follow the life of a medical student during her journey in body dissection. You will learn what it is like being around a dead body. What does a dead body smell like? What is it like cutting a dead body into pieces? Can a dead body know what we are doing to it? Those are all questions, among many others, medical students (as well as philosophers) ask all the time. And you'll be joining the circle and asking many more questions at the end of this book.The author traces the history of body dissection, and actually flies first to Italy for her research. In the old days, doctors were desperate for dead bodies in order to learn more about the functions of the living body, and thus help the living. But not many people would volunteer to donate their body to science. The business of body-snatching was thus born. Bodies were often stolen from cemeteries. So prevalent was this practice at the time that families hired armed guards to watch over their family's burial grounds. The poor obviously could not afford such luxury, and their bodies were often stolen and then sold to hospitals.Fresh bodies earned the most money. A body sold right after death earned more than a day or more old cadaver. This gave rise to another business: killing the patients before they die. Why wait for a person to die? Kill him and give his body for research, and earn big money! Real criminals just killed a person, whether ill or not, and then sold his body. Why wait for the person to be terminally ill?Not only was there the fear of having your body stolen from the cemetery, but there also was the fear of being donated for research while being still alive. This often happened, and there are many stories of people having been buried alive! This of course gave rise to the tales of zombies! In fact, many acted as zombies for they were partially brain dead from oxygen deprivation. A person can quickly exhaust the oxygen supply in a coffin!Prevalent at the time was live dissection. This was the preferred method, since the body is still alive, and doctors can better study and understand the functions of the body. But honestly, who would want to be cut off while still alive in the name of science? Unfortunately, many did not have a say. Prisoners were often used as live dissection subjects!The author tells some horror stories that happened during her medical school. For example, students would cut off the penis of a cadaver and insert it into the vagina of another cadaver. How disrespectful to the dead! There are many other similar stories. Having sex with a dead body is not unheard off.What is it like transporting a dead body, or part of a dead body? Does the body become an object for study, or the thought that this body was once a person lingers in one's mind? What is it like being in a room alone with twenty dead bodies?I found it interesting that nowadays medical schools and hospitals are very cautious about which bodies they purchase. For example, if a person just died, the hospital or school researches the person's name and checks whether a student from the same family is one of their resident students. Could you imagine dissecting the body of your own father or uncle? Many psychologists will tell you that the dissection of a body gives trauma to a person, regardless whether the deceased is known or unknown to the dissector.Nowadays, there is a movement to dissect bodies using 3D software and virtual computer programs. Maybe one day soon, all the dead can rest in peace.A very prevalent multi-billion business nowadays is selling body parts. Many body parts are sold by poor people. Many body parts are taken from people forcefully. I once saw a movie about an American tourist going on a holiday in a South American Country, meeting a woman at a bar, who later drugs him. He wakes up in his hotel bathtub in icy water. One of his kidneys was surgically removed to be sold! Such stories do happen. There are reports that this is now happening in Iraq, with organs either sold by the person or being forcefully removed!One important question you will ask yourself at the end of this book: will you give your body for medical research? I already answered this question for myself.This is one of the best books I have read. The author has a great writing style, poetic at times. You will not be able to put this book down. And you will be scared out of your wits!