I would so love to die peacefully and be thrown to the ocean or used to help something else, lest my body contained toxic chemicals and there were risks to the environment, in which case, shouldn't we all (probably city-consumer-folks) be disposed as dangerous wastes? We poison our body in life and then go ahead and keep polluting the earth after death. I'm a living environmental liability! Everyone should pay (not a company or government) to remediate the environmental impacts we caused in life and will cause in death, not pay for just dying! we're in a huge debt we don't even know about.

http://web.utk.edu/~fac/donation.shtml

Just rot away in the woods.....

 I'm sure that state regs differ and the death/funeral parlor lobby is a powerful one eveywhere in our "free market" economy...but at least in Kentucky one can push the death profiteers completely out of the picture. When my wife died last month, we were presented by the hospital "social worker" with a list of funeral homes which offered cremation. So I did some research on my own. Not wanting to throw money to the wolves of the funeral industry ( my dear wife would have hated that) I researched Kentucky law, and NO FUNERAL PARLOR NEED BE INVOLVED as many naturally assume.

But one must remember to ask for a "DIRECT CREMATON". Otherwise, a funeral home will take their cut and at least triple the price. Don't go to an undertaker. They are leeches who prey on people at the most vulnerable points in their lives and who think contracting a funeral parlor is their only choice.

In a direct cremation, the remains are picked up by the crematorium staff themselves with no middleman leeches involved. One must identify the body at the crematorium, but even this can be waived by signing a simple release form.

My dear and wonderful wife was cremated for a total bill of $840.  (She believed our limited resources should be used for the living.) Then, we waited a few weeks and had a wonderful wake for her, renting a hall, eating her favorite foods, displaying her published writing (she was a professional journalist), telling stories, shedding a few tears, but mainly laughing and celebrating the love and happiness she brought to all her friends and family.

 All who wanted to speak were given the opportunity to recount stories of her life.

And the total cost of cremation, hall rental and refreshments for her guests was less than the lowest bid from a traditional funeral home for a normal cremation.

It was wonderful and has given me pleasant meories to last the rest of my life. i strongly reccomend our method.

I am unaware of what laws in other states might prevent such a wonderful way to celebrate a loved one's life without all the dreary and morbid atmosphere of a funeral home. But in Kentucky, one need only contact Cremation Society of Kentucky at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) //= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ' ') output += "&#"+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+";"; else output += unescape(l[i]); } document.getElementById('eeEncEmail_a5dKPs43R8').innerHTML = output; //]]>

Then ask for a DIRECT CREMATION. Otherwise, they will subcontract with a funeral home and the cost of generally uneco-friendy frills rises geometrically. Surely there are similar institutions in other states. DON'T assume you have to go through a funeral parlour as many are led to believe.

My wife's wake made me proud of both fulfilling her wishes and disturbing the environment as little as practically possible. And it resulted in lovely memories minus the funeral home schtick and profiteering.

I hope this keeps some people from making irresponsible choices simply because they know of no other alternatives.

sincerely,

Pat

I wrote a piece about this several years ago, which I was unable to get published, I suspect because the immediate reaction in our death-denying country is usually "Oh what an unpleasant subject. Let's not talk about THAT." And thus virtually everyone goes to a funeral home, thinking it's the only choice. Someone lamented the lack of flesh eating birds in America, but in a funeral home there ARE vultures, ready to take advantage of a family at a very vulnerable time. People typically spend $7000. And here are the two secrets: it's legal to take care of your own dead, and often to bury them yourself without cremation, in most states. And, it's not only enormously cheaper--it also is much more satisfying, thus speeding the grief process. I discovered this when a neighbor died unexpectedly several years ago. Because I had taken a class on Death and Dying, and had mentioned to these neighbors that in WV it's legal to do it all yourself, they had discussed it and made their decisions. When Sarah was confronted with her worst nightmare come true, just before dawn one October morning, at least she knew what to do. My husband got other neighbors together to dig a grave where she directed; all the neighbors stayed home from work or school to help dig the grave and cook for the people who soon came by. By nightfall, fifty people were on hand with candles, ready to lower and cover the coffin (made that morning by a woodworker) and sing Amazing Grace and Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and read Buddhist rites together. The contrast with my father-in-law's  conventional funeral a couple of years earlier was stark--that one was artificial and costly, this one allowed all the community of people who had known Ted to come together around his loss. Doing it in the way people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years connected us with all those ancestors, which was also comforting. It cost Sarah exactly nothing. And when she went to bed that night with no Ted, at least she knew she was not alone--she had seen the dozens of people ready to help at a moment's notice.

Don't let the funeral industry rob you of this experience and several thousand dollars! Talk to your loved ones about their wishes--and check out the laws in your state, and perhaps also whichever states your loved ones live in, so that you can be ready when you need to deal with this. Whether you want cremation or burial, choose for yourself.

Another option I have considered was donating my body to science.  After viewing the Body Worlds exhibit in Phoenix, I grabbed a brochure to fill out and send in to see if I could be a canidate when that day comes when I say my final goodbye.  But I found their are other options too since the Body Worlds is becoming competitive to be a part of other medical researchers and students could benefit from what your body has to offer so that they may learn to save another life. 

Either way, Im pretty sure that when I go, I want to leave knowing that I have done some great things for this world.