Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey's Head, the Pope's Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul by Brandy Schillace

8 reviews

dear6hla's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

apersonfromflorida's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Animal death

Moderate: Car accident, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, and Child death

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Car accident

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Xenophobia, Classism, Antisemitism, Gun violence, Ableism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Child death, Cancer, Murder, and Self harm

amess's review

dark informative medium-paced

4.75

Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher is a historical and biographical tale of the quest to transplant the human mind/soul, which was pursued by Dr. Robert White.

Schillace does a wonderful job remaining objective and unbiased on Dr. White's work as well as the ethics surrounding it while also highlighting the controversies of his work- such as the PETA-led animal rights abuse accusations geared toward his experiments on rhesus monkeys. Whether the work would have been stronger had Schillace lobbied any criticisms of his work (which did end up having practical uses in the surgery field, but his end goal remained unfulfilled) remains to be seen.

I do think Schillace sometimes focused too much on White as a person as well as his family in clear attempts to humanize him when his family seemed to be separate from his career.

However, this was a fascinating look into medical science as well as deeper questions such as what is considered death and to what extent medicine should intervene in that process.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Graphic descriptions and pictures of animal experimentation

hydecircus's review

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

The true story of one of the most fascinating men to have ever lived. I find myself finishing this book and growing a desperate desire to go into medicine, to complete what Robert White wasn't able to in his lifetime. And after that find a way to resurrect him, just to let him know that his legacy lives on. The most unexpected part of the story was just how right he was. You hear about his expirements only in the most sensationalist contexts: "Look at what this crazy doctor did to monkeys in the 70s!" You go into a book like this expecting someone almost cartoonishly evil and completely lacking in care for others, and come away from it mourning that he never got to complete his ultimate goal. Or maybe thats just what I, as another Frankenstein fanatic, took away from it. Either way, the trip through this particular era of American medical history is endlessly interesting to read about. The half star off is for a bit of a slow start, but once it picks up it doesn't ever stop or slow down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

cmd_prompt's review

adventurous challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Animal death

mar's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

4.0

[cold war era scientist voice] im going to do something SO ethically dubious yet morbidly fascinating,

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Medical content, and Animal cruelty

VERY graphic descriptions of gruesome experiments performed on monkeys (and dogs, to a lesser extent)

zozitro's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Animal cruelty, and Animal death