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Cremation or Burial

rainbowwarriorrainbowwarrior
edited February 2011 in Philosophy
Which would you recommend and why?

just to say - if it was legal - i would've preferred having my body left in the wild for vultures to eat.

Comments

  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited February 2011
    Save your loved ones some money, save the Earth some burial space that you don't really need (really, why does a corpse need to take up so much space?), and get cremated. That's the way I'm going anyway (or hope).

    The best option isn't available to us, allowing the corpse to actually decay where it is useful and provide fertilization for plant life and/or food for animals. Dying in the woods and not being buried would be one way of this working out, since this is the natural way animals are meant to die. This just isn't palpable to humans. :D
  • tbuntontbunton
    Cremated. At least I know I wont ever be a zombie. :eek:
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    rainbowwarrior, I am sure there's a way to have a sky burial in Tibet, if that's what you want.

    Personally, I'll get buried (for cultural reasons).
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Cremation is not as ecologically sound as one would think. It creates a lot of CO2 and there are still minerals to dispose of safely, once they have been sifted out of the remaining ashes.

    There is a sharp increase in natural burials here, in the UK. I'd opt for that one, personally.

    Though after I'm dead, I really don't care what anyone chooses to do with my remains.
    They can rot for all I care.


    Oh.....

    hang on..... :D

    http://www.funeralsearch.co.uk/woodlands.php

    http://www.wickerwillowcoffins.co.uk/
  • TalismanTalisman Veteran
    Burn me and mix my ashes with soil for your garden.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    luvly for them roses.....!

    Hint to all: When scattering ashes, stand down-wind.
  • TalismanTalisman Veteran
    edited February 2011
    Remember "The Big Labowski" when they empty the ashes and they blow all over Jeff Bridges? lolz :D
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Yeah. Telegraphed. But still hilarious.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    rainbowwarrior, I am sure there's a way to have a sky burial in Tibet, if that's what you want.
    Ah.


    First, get into Tibet.
    (Difficult to do, as a corpse. particularly if you're not too fresh and have been hanging around for a while. Even your best friends won't tell you....)

    Secondly, get to somewhere where they still perform them. Long walk. No, I mean, really long.(Difficult to do... etc, etc....)

    Thirdly, get past the Chinese Authorities who are stamping down on Tibetan tradition and ritual, and have prevented and forbidden such burials from being carried out, in recent years.

    get past those 3 and you should do fine.




  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    Cremation. Yeah, I know it's not really me and just an empty shell, but something about the thought of lying in a box in the cold soil bugs me out.
  • RogerRoger
    edited February 2011
    I'm thinking my body is a mess I leave behind. I'll let those kind souls hapless enough to have to deal with it decide how to clean it up.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    I plan to vanish in rainbow light!
  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    edited February 2011
    They used to have sky burials in Alaska. Maybe they still do in Native villages. Research it. (I doubt it, but it's worth a try.)
    I plan to vanish in rainbow light!
    Your body would still be left behind, Jeffers.

  • mugzymugzy Veteran
    Cremation is better for the environment.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Actually, no it isn't. It's actually quite toxic.
    Refer to my post, above. :)
  • DazzleDazzle

    I've opted for cremation.

    When I was a teenager I used to think that when I died I'd like to be made into canned petfood. :D
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Why would people want cremation if it's actually worse for the environment than burial?
    Just asking.... :hrm:
  • TalismanTalisman Veteran
    Cremation might be preferable for environmental reasons. Burial is a known source of certain environmental contaminants, with the coffin itself being the major contaminant.[15] Another concern is contamination from radioisotopes that have entered the body before death or burial, although cremation does not seem to be advantageous. For example, one possible source of isotopes is radiation therapy, although no accumulation of radiation occurs in the most common type of radiation therapy involving high energy photons. However, cremation has no effect on radioisotopes other than to return them to the environment more rapidly (beginning with some spread into the air).[16]

    Yet another environmental concern, of sorts, is that traditional burial takes up a great deal of space. In a traditional burial, the body is buried in a casket made from a variety of materials. In America, the casket is often placed inside a concrete vault or liner before burial in the ground. While individually this may not take much room, combined with other burials, it can over time cause serious space concerns. Many cemeteries, particularly in Japan[17] and Europe as well as those in larger cities, have run out of permanent space. In Tokyo, for example, traditional burial plots are extremely scarce and expensive,[18] and in London, a space crisis led Harriet Harman to propose reopening old graves for "double-decker" burials.[19]

    However, there is a body of research that indicates cremation has a significant impact on the environment as well.[citation needed] The emissions from crematories include nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, hydrofluoric acid (HF), hydrochloric acid (HCl) in addition to persistent organic pollutants (POP).


    --

    I suppose it's really a toss-up. I wonder if they can vaporize the body, or turn it into fertalizer or something. Toss me into an active volcano, THERE YOU GO!!
  • DazzleDazzle
    It says here that both both cremation and traditional burials have been found to be environmentally unfriendly

    http://education.ezinemark.com/cremation-or-burial-carbon-emissions-and-the-environment-4d98bff785c.htm
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    Launch the bodies into space. For the environment and stuff. Seriously the bodies are much worse for the environment with what they consume when alive than when they are dead. MUCH worse.
  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    Why would people want cremation if it's actually worse for the environment than burial?
    Just asking.... :hrm:
    Personally I'm claustrophobic, so...

  • robotrobot Veteran
    I heard on the radio a while back about a method that is being developed that accelerates decomposition to a couple of days. I believe it involved immersing the corpse in an alkaline solution then heating it up. Apparently the residue can be safely run down the drain. As I recall one of the main obstacles to having it approved seemed to be the idea that it was somehow disrespectful to the deceased.
  • StaticToyboxStaticToybox Veteran
    I heard on the radio a while back about a method that is being developed that accelerates decomposition to a couple of days. I believe it involved immersing the corpse in an alkaline solution then heating it up. Apparently the residue can be safely run down the drain. As I recall one of the main obstacles to having it approved seemed to be the idea that it was somehow disrespectful to the deceased.
    When I die flush me down the toilet.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited February 2011
    Well, I figured the ecological burial I detailed in my first post would deal with a lot of the obstacles and disadvantages of a conventional burial, in a huge casket.
    And as I'm petite, I wouldn't take up much room... and the wormies would have a field-day!
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited February 2011
    I'd say grind me up and use this body for fertilizer, but silly society wouldn't allow that even though they'd let my body get burned up to ash. :D
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    Donate it to science. :)http://www.biogift.org/
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    How about burial at sea? They haul you off in a boat dozens of miles off shore, tie rocks or weights to you, then throw you overboard. The fishes get food, there is little to no environmental impact, and if you ever do come back as a zombie you can be one of those cool mutilated ones that walk under water and infect islands where people think they are "safe"

    just a thought.
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    That'd be perfect, @Zayl.
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    That'd be perfect, @Zayl.
    What I wonder is, do they even still do this upon request?
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Donate it to science. :)http://www.biogift.org/
    Science is under no obligation to accept the gift. A friend of mine's mother decided upon this course of action in her will. When she died - "science" said 'Thanks - but no thanks!' She was ultimately buried in the conventional manner.....

  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    How about burial at sea? They haul you off in a boat dozens of miles off shore, tie rocks or weights to you, then throw you overboard. The fishes get food, there is little to no environmental impact, and if you ever do come back as a zombie you can be one of those cool mutilated ones that walk under water and infect islands where people think they are "safe"

    just a thought.
    I like this, Zayl. And yes, I'm pretty sure they still do that.

    Jeffrey, if they launched the bodies into space, they'd eventually fall back to earth, like all that space debris, old sputniks, etc.

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    Eeew! Nice! Imagine sitting innocently in your garden, with the family, having a BBQ...and look what lands on the grill!
  • rainbowwarriorrainbowwarrior
    I plan to vanish in rainbow light!
    Hi Jeffrey - that is the ultimate - how do you plan on doing that?

    Our teacher told us of a man who just disappeared - but he was doing 2000 prostrations a day!

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