How does Mary Roach characterize herself in this book?

Mary Roach is a pragmatist, who has a utilitarian rather than spiritual view of death. In Chapter Seven, we learn that she dislikes religious propaganda, and she wants to reduce human suffering. Roach sees the living as more significant than the dead. In her mind, cadavers matter to the living and represent a lost loved one. Beyond this, she points out, that organs also represent a second chance for a living person. To the author, a corpse might be thought of as organic tissue or it might be regarded as a symbol. It is however not a person.

Roach presents herself as rational but she is not unfeeling. She understands the human need to regard the dead with dignity. In Chapter 8, she is filled with compassion and gratitude as H's still beating heart is removed and recovered. This depth of emotion does not in any way contradict Roach's rationalism, but rather, reinforces the idea that death is not for the dead but an experience for the living.