Whether this has anything to do with Monika's suppression of her surname, people have always been very concerned with what happens to the bodies of their beloved dead.  The ancient Greeks thought that the loss of a body at sea was a terrible sorrow, so there is this wonderful little detail in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts: He is escaping from Colchis, with the Golden Fleece on board, and also the princess Medea, who is in love with him and is helping him, as well as Medea's kid-brother Apsyrtus; their father, King Aeetes, sets out in pursuit, apparently in the demonstration model of the Argo Mark 2, and he is gaining on them; so, Medea, that strong-minded and resourceful woman, takes Apsyrtus, kills him, and cuts him up into little pieces, then one by one tosses them off the stern; and she shouts across the water, "Daddy, these things I am throwing overboard are pieces of your dear young son"; so he is diverted from pursuing the Argo, instead needing to sail all around the Black Sea to recover the pieces of his son's body.

Biodiv, I have never seen a wooden coffin used in a Catholic funeral in the US.  The very unfortunate practice that we have is to bury our dead in these large, elaborately constructed metal cases.  The traditional doctrine of the resurrection of the dead lies behind it: at the end of time (?), at the Last Judgment (??), all the dead shall rise, to be judged.  Hence arises what is basically a superstition, that it is necessary to preserve the integrity of the dead body as well as possible.  But then, what is the story with all the embalming fluid?  And what about all those bodies of saints which have been intentionally disassembled, so that as many churches as possible have heads or fingers or collar bones to venerate as relics?

Cremation had never been permitted till recently.  Even in that case, the stipulation was that the ashes must be gathered in a single vessel, and not scattered.  And yet, the late JFK Jr. had expressed a wish to be cremated, and that his ashes be scattered from the air over the sea to the south of Cape Cod -- ironically, where he died -- ; and I believe that is what happened, given that the Kennedy clan are notoriously much more successful than, say, Henry VIII in making deals with the Catholic hierarchy.

I very much like Monika's suggestion, and I hope it takes off.  Already the Jews have a most admirable attitude toward organ donorship: to donate one's body or one's organs, either for medical research or to help people who need healthy organs, is a "mitzvah," a benefit explicitly in accord with God's will.  I would hope that members of other religions come to share this enlightened attitude.

And I would hope that the attitude can be extended to include some well-chosen environmental purposes to donate one's body to.  There will always be a serious need for dignity, however, and I am not sure converting a corpse into fuel for a car, or a lawn-mower, or a leaf-blower, quite measures up.

Back when I was a projectionist, in the mid 1970s, I showed the movie "Soylent Green": really creepy.  It did not help that the dismal dystopic portrait of a future NYC somewhat corresponded to NYC's decline in that decade.  In that story, of course, the main moral horrors were cannibalism, and the systemic secrecy surrounding it.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!