D G Jones. Ashgate, 2000, £50, pp 304. ISBN 1754620735

This book is well-timed. Jones has produced a broad-ranging work focused on a novel subject: the cadaver. In this year alone, high-profile media issues have included the non-consensual storage of postmortem examination tissues at Alder Hey; the trial of Dr Heinrich Gross, for killing and storing the brains of children in Austria in the second world war; debate about the medical uses of fetal tissues, and the repatriation and reburial of indigenous remains from museums.

Speaking for the Dead is underpinned by a profound respect for cadavers. Jones makes the claim that respect accorded to persons (and their wishes) extends to their …