Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? (2nd ed.), by Kenneth V. Iserson. Tucson, Ariz.: Galen Press, 2001. 821 pp. $48.95.

Extract

In this second edition of Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies?, emergency physician/bioethicist Kenneth Iserson has revised and expanded the original 1994 edition. The second edition improves on its predecessor in several ways. First, it updates information on several important topics, such as rates of organ donation and the number of patients awaiting organ transplantation. Second, it includes new information in a number of topic areas, such as embalming, mummification, and cryonics. Third, the design of the book, including the page layout, graphs, and illustrations, is much clearer and more attractive. The goals and organization of the second edition, however, remain unchanged from the first.