The final taboo

Abstract

For many societies, the subject of death remains taboo. Language has evolved to ensure we are not confronted with our own mortality: people do not die, they “pass away”; people are not dead, they are “late”. But not all of us can shelter behind euphemisms. Like doctors and the police, coroners are among those in society who are faced with death every day.John Temple's account of life dealing with death comes from spending months shadowing investigators at a coroner's office in Pittsburgh, USA. The deputy coroners, interns, and morticians who form the real-life characters of the book, used to work in medicine, funeral homes, or law enforcement. What unites them is their desire to find out what lies beneath the surface of a death scene.Forensic pathologists pick up on subtle clues that the police might miss. Temple describes how their specialist knowledge can tell them whether the knife used to cause a wound was single or double bladed, whether bruising was caused by strangulation or decomposition, and a myriad other details that only those trained to scrutinise the dead can detect.Temple also traces the evolution of forensic medicine from its origins in medieval England, when a royally appointed “crowner” would inspect homicides or suicides to determine how the dead person's land would be divided, to the scientific system that several countries now use. Deadhouse takes us on an engrossing journey into how the circumstances of death are unravelled. For many societies, the subject of death remains taboo. Language has evolved to ensure we are not confronted with our own mortality: people do not die, they “pass away”; people are not dead, they are “late”. But not all of us can shelter behind euphemisms. Like doctors and the police, coroners are among those in society who are faced with death every day. John Temple's account of life dealing with death comes from spending months shadowing investigators at a coroner's office in Pittsburgh, USA. The deputy coroners, interns, and morticians who form the real-life characters of the book, used to work in medicine, funeral homes, or law enforcement. What unites them is their desire to find out what lies beneath the surface of a death scene. Forensic pathologists pick up on subtle clues that the police might miss. Temple describes how their specialist knowledge can tell them whether the knife used to cause a wound was single or double bladed, whether bruising was caused by strangulation or decomposition, and a myriad other details that only those trained to scrutinise the dead can detect. Temple also traces the evolution of forensic medicine from its origins in medieval England, when a royally appointed “crowner” would inspect homicides or suicides to determine how the dead person's land would be divided, to the scientific system that several countries now use. Deadhouse takes us on an engrossing journey into how the circumstances of death are unravelled.