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Dealing with your future corpse

quarky said:
But why not care? That's what I'm getting at...our last chance to care.

otherwise, we should be fined for littering, so to speak.

My venting on this issue is more than an assault on superstition and bad husbandry...its a quest for a rational sort of spirituality or ethics.

If i don't intervene on my body's behalf, the rest of you will be mildly polluted from its disposal.

Sure, not much...

Yet this issue has symbolic ramifications. It needs a logical outlet.

Its the damn principle of the thing!
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Okay, fine then. have some Soylent Green on me, so to speak...
 
When I die I want to be dressed in a superman outfit and thrown out of an aeroplane.:)
 
Wowbagger said:
Why not donate your mortal bodies to science? It might be expensive, too. But, at least some benefit could come out of it.
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That's what my will requests, more or less. I think it says something along the lines of "the medical profession can take anything it feels will be useful, and I don't much care what happens to the rest."

Dave
 
Skwinty said:
When I die I want to be dressed in a superman outfit and thrown out of an aeroplane.:)
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That's funny. I've always told my friends when I die I want to be cremated and then added to pepper shakers with a big sign over them say 'Eat ME!'. :D
 
caniswalensis said:
Who cares? I'll be dead, so screw the earth!

...and believe you me, my dead eyes will be staring glassily out from the door of my huge granite & marble mausoleum, surmounted by a life-sized equestrian statueof my self in bronze; and from the comfort of my hermetically sealed and gold-encrusted glass coffin, in which I have been buried sitting upright on a throne of walrus ivory and condor feathers, my perfectly preserved corpse will grin with a ferocious rictus as the world and its miserable infestation of living things spins to its inevitable demise.
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Believe it or not I can supply those for you!!!:)
 
Well, some Tibetans (and a few other Chinese ethnic minorities) practice sky burials. The body is simply carried to the top of a mountain, and left there to be consumed by animals. Just about the most environmentally friendly way to deal with the body that I can think of. There's not a great deal of religious significance to it, according to my understanding...they believe the soul has already left the body, and in an environment that is both rocky and lacking in a lot of firewood, both burial and cremation are not that practical.

In some cases, after the flesh has been consumed, the bones will be smashed and broken open, so that they too can be consumed.

Me...I think I'd go either for a sky burial, or as Wowbagger suggested, donating my entire body to science.
 
quarky said:
I went to my uncle's funeral. He was a great guy, and we always liked each other. Three other people were there, and we saw the casket for a minute or two. It was a fine piece of work. During the burial, i recall feeling sad about that brand new piece of woodwork getting buried.

i'd heard rumors of caskets being re-used. Despicable. Yet, i sort of hope its true. Not the deception; the common sense of doing that.
<snip>

.
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Rental caskets.

They are oversided wood caskets that are used for the funeral service and/or the visitation/viewing. The body is placed in a temporary container which is then placed in the casket. After the service the casket stays in the funeral home but the body and temporary container are taken to the cemetery or crematory.
Much less expensive than buying a casket, and 99.9% of the guests at the services can't tell the difference.
 
caniswalensis said:
Who cares? I'll be dead, so screw the earth!

...and believe you me, my dead eyes will be staring glassily out from the door of my huge granite & marble mausoleum, surmounted by a life-sized equestrian statueof my self in bronze; and from the comfort of my hermetically sealed and gold-encrusted glass coffin, in which I have been buried sitting upright on a throne of walrus ivory and condor feathers, my perfectly preserved corpse will grin with a ferocious rictus as the world and its miserable infestation of living things spins to its inevitable demise.
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^ ^ This. It's possibly the best thing my eyes have seen. :)
 
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As to my own corpse... hoping to leave it on a very fractal mountain side, far away from eyes and noses.
 
Burial at sea is an option for veterans who qualify for burial at a national cemetery.

But I've talked to retired naval officers who told me that it is a PITA for the sailors aboard the ship that pulls that duty. And being a pita is not the goal of this thread.

Though I'd prefer to feed the fishes over all the other alternatives. And here in California, an individual can pick up remains for "transport". My nephew has a boat, the ocean is 5,000 deep only a couple miles off shore... chain, a couple engine blocks... and naked into the briney deep. Still being a PITA though. But I think it is legal, merely transport remains out of the state?
 
In some areas of India, the dead are left out for vultures. Problem...A lack of vultures, and increasing numbers of bodies.

Of course, there's always the Monty Python solution...."Hey boys, we've got an eater!"
 
My first choice is to have my body loaded onto a replica of a Viking longship, which will be towed out to sea (or Lake Superior) and set alight with flaming arrows fired from shore.

My second choice is cremation.

My third choice is to be buried without embalming, somewhere where that's legal.
 
Burn me and produce electricity. I've always wondered whether this would be a good source of fuel.
 
Although I have a preference for cremation, I will most likely be buried out of respect for my family.

My family is very sentimental, and they like having a gravesite to visit, to remember and honor the dead. Annual visits on birthdays for beloved parents and siblings are not unusual.

It is important to remember that your funeral arrangements aren't for you; you're dead! They're for the loved ones you leave behind. That's why I think it's important to talk to them about what will help them deal with your loss, rather than just what you yourself would want.
 
Dave Rogers said:
That's what my will requests, more or less. I think it says something along the lines of "the medical profession can take anything it feels will be useful, and I don't much care what happens to the rest."

Dave
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What if the 'rest' ends up costing your relatives $1000?
 
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