The Dying Game: A Curious History of Death

by King, Melanie

• ISBN13: 9781851685929
• ISBN10: 1851685928
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Pgw

Summary

Would you be buried, burned, sunk or pickled? Or turned into a diamond, embalmed like Lenin, or frozen like Walt Disney? The Dying Game explores all that has, could, and does befall a corpse - biologically, culturally, ethically, and legally. Entertaining, human, and based on sound research, Melanie King reveals everything you never knew (and didn't know you wanted to know) about the last taboo: Death.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Introduction: Alternative Endings	p. 1
An Early Grave: Premature Burial and Its Prevention	p. 5
Dead or Alive?: The Problem of Diagnosing Death	p. 16
Waking the Dead: Resurrections and Exhumations	p. 26
Rest in Pieces: Body Bits and Their Uses	p. 47
Getting Stuffed: Embalmers, Plastinators and Headshrinkers	p. 65
The Ultimate Makeover: Incorruptibles and Self-embalmers	p. 89
Stone Angels to Space Rockets: Commemorating the Dead	p. 104
Ghost Festivals and Purifying Fire: Safeguarding the Soul	p. 126
Bodies of Evidence: Murder Most Foul	p. 144
Reinventing Death: The New Technology of Dying	p. 164
Notes	p. 192
Select Bibliography	p. 201
Useful Information	p. 205
Index	p. 207
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.