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Published in:
2014 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
From Theft to Donation: Dissection, Organ Donation and Collective Memory
Author : Glennys Howarth
Published in: The Social Construction of Death
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
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Dissection of the human corpse has for a long time been considered abhorrent; a fate worse than death. In a short extract, Helen MacDonald (2006) illustrates the view on dissection as an abominable doom as she describes the public death scenes of executed murderers whose bodies subsequently underwent the post-mortem punishment of dissection to great applause from the crowds who had gathered for the spectacle:
Until 1832, London’s College of Surgeons had been receiving all the bodies of those executed for murder in that city since 1752. These public dissections were crafted social events. Astley Cooper, who carried them out, found that the College’s theatre was constantly crowded, and the
applause excessive
. Executions, too, were public spectacles that attracted huge and rowdy crowds. They were usually performed at eight o’clock on Monday mornings, following which the body was left dangling at the end of the rope for an hour before being carted to the College’s house. (MacDonald, 2006, p. 13)