How to die ....

[Dave2002]

A grim but interesting article here.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/we-need-a-greener-way-to-die

One thing I didn't know about - and still don't - is whether funeral directors in the UK do use embalming methods for bodies - either buried or cremated.

[RichardB]

One thing I didn't know about - and still don't - is whether funeral directors in the UK do use embalming methods for bodies

The figure is apparently 50-55% in the UK. You're welcome.

[ardcarp]

Burial at sea must surely be the 'greenest'? The oceans are wide, and human remains must surely provide food for countless marine animals, large and small.
One wouldn't want to encourage it 100 metres off Western Super Mare, but in the vast Atlantic or Pacific deeps it must be OK....apart from the cost of fuel getting the corpses there. Sail power? Any reason for starting off this macabre topic, Dave?

[oddoneout]

Burial at sea must surely be the 'greenest'? The oceans are wide, and human remains must surely provide food for countless marine animals, large and small.
One wouldn't want to encourage it 100 metres off Western Super Mare, but in the vast Atlantic or Pacific deeps it must be OK....apart from the cost of fuel getting the corpses there. Sail power? Any reason for starting off this macabre topic, Dave?

Composting in closed containers, and water cremation interest me interest me as alternatives to the standard burial or cremation options

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/16/human-composting-could-be-the-future-of-deathcare

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/02/what-is-aquamation-the-process-behind-desmond-tutus-green-cremation

As an aside, in those countries that leave bodies for vultures to dispose of - sky burials - which seems a pretty eco-friendly way to do things if not an option here, have run into difficulties with the sharp decline of birds to do the job. One cause has been drugs used to treat cattle.

[Old Grumpy]

A grim but interesting article here.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/we-need-a-greener-way-to-die

One thing I didn't know about - and still don't - is whether funeral directors in the UK do use embalming methods for bodies - either buried or cremated.

Not really "How to die", is it? More how to deal with the dead!

[Dave2002]

Burial at sea must surely be the 'greenest'? The oceans are wide, and human remains must surely provide food for countless marine animals, large and small.
One wouldn't want to encourage it 100 metres off Western Super Mare, but in the vast Atlantic or Pacific deeps it must be OK....apart from the cost of fuel getting the corpses there. Sail power? Any reason for starting off this macabre topic, Dave?

Just sort of popped up - one of the many articles prompted by Pocket. I only pick ones which look interesting, and I wasn't intending to read/look at this one, but did, and then realised that largely it is aimed at a US audience. However the details about embalming made me wonder. Few of us think about what is going to happen to us - either dig a hole, toss us in, or pay a few more pounds to British Gas for a burn up. Some people opt for giving their bodies to science or for medical students.

I don't particularly want to think about this at length, but there is an inevitability about it. I don't want to cause more of an environmental problem than I can avoid.

[JasonPalmer]

Interesting article, we had wills drawn up when our son was born in case anything happpened to us, the default was cremation and ashes spread at sea, seems as good as anyway.

[Petrushka]

I mentioned on another thread only the other day that my father was a funeral director for over 60 years, from just before he joined the RAF in 1939 to 2006. In that time he dealt with just about every aspect of death that you can imagine: murders, suicides, car crashes, train crashes etc, etc, two of which made big news headlines in their day.

He did his best to shield us, his children, from the reality of his job but with varying success. It was a family joke for years (and still is) that it was a copper-bottomed certainty that the telephone would ring on Christmas morning while we were opening our presents and off he'd have to go. He was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it all impinged a good deal on our lives.

For many reasons, therefore, and having lived with it since very early childhood, I've got a very matter of fact view of death that some might find hard to understand.

'How to Die...' There are literally hundreds of ways, so many, in fact, it's a miracle that anyone lasts beyond 50!

[RichardB]

there is an inevitability about it

You don't say!

I really don't think there's any point in our remains taking up space in the world after we've gone, whatever one might believe about the existence or otherwise of a soul.

[CallMePaul]

I have advised my partner that I want a "natural" (ie woodland or meadow) burial in a biodegradable coffin when the time comes (which I hope will not be for many years). I intend to write my will this year and will set this request in stone then.

[Dave2002]

You don't say!

I really don't think there's any point in our remains taking up space in the world after we've gone, whatever one might believe about the existence or otherwise of a soul.

I think we can all be accommodated on one small island, such as the Isle of Wight. However if we each want to have mausoleums built, then the space requirements go up considerably. Ground levels do go up if bodies are stacked in piles. Brookwood cemetery was created to reduce space and burial problems in London. In some countries bodies are dug up after (say) 25 or 50 years and otherwise dispersed to save space.

[smittims]

This reminds me of a Radio4 series hosted by Joan Bakewell ; 'We need to talk about death'.

Everyone dies, yet in our sanitised society we don't like to talk about it: 'ooh, dont be so morbid' peopel squeal whenever I've alluded to the subject.

I think that the way surviving relatives have to pay for a funeral is as outdated as the old postal system where the recipient of a letter paid for postage . Surely any civilised society should have a sort of 'National Death Service' for taking and disposing of bodies.

It's reminde me that I really must get around to inquiring about leaving my body to Anatomy.

[eighthobstruction]

As an aside, in those countries that leave bodies for vultures to dispose of - sky burials - which seems a pretty eco-friendly way to do things if not an option here, have run into difficulties with the sharp decline of birds to do the job. One cause has been drugs used to treat cattle.

....yes but they usually have employ lowest and shunned caste to chop them up into raptor sized peices before dispensing....[I believe]

[kernelbogey]

Everyone dies, yet in our sanitised society we don't like to talk about it: 'ooh, dont be so morbid' peopel squeal whenever I've alluded to the subject..

A useful space for talking about death has been created for precisely those reasons by the Death Cafe organisation.

[Serial_Apologist]

....yes but they usually have employ lowest and shunned caste to chop them up into raptor sized peices before dispensing....[I believe]

I hadn't previously realised how the pecking order was involved there...