Sure, but it’s not like you’re still alive at that point. Besides, there are few forms of burial which do NOT include some form of interaction with the body. The least invasive seem to be the Muslim and Jewish mode, which is basically just washing the body, wrapping it and putting it in the ground. Here in the US, we drain the body of it’s blood, pump formaldehyde into it, and putting into an air tight box (unless one can get a green burial). I also think that we also outsource as much interaction with the dead body as we can, which I think might make it harder to move on from death sometimes.
I also think that the reason for a sky burial has to do with the location where it’s practiced, around Tibet, which has little land to go around in the first place, and this is a practical way to deal with the dead.
I agree. Some faiths demand the whole body be interred, so I can understand having an opt out there. But for those of us who don’t care, organ donation should be the default.
There’s always the option for medical science, too. Universities and teaching hospitals still use cadavers for teaching and research. This is an option that’s a little more work than organ donation as there may be reasons why you’re unsuitable and like organ donation, it’s not just something that you can put in your will.
But if anyone is keen to give a med-student a hand (or a leg, liver, spleen etc.,) get in touch with the nearest major institution and not only save a life with your organs, but help save many lives with the other bits too.
I think the job depends on the context. lots of people have gigs that involve taking apart dead bodies, and I think it doesn’t necessarily get to them. It can be just a job, or thought of as a purely medical procedure, or whatever.
The specific guy I saw was in a smaller community, I think. And he was the only one there who could do sky burial prep. And the fact that he was of a different religion was important - I think that most people in that community would have been prohibitted by their religion from doing what he does.
I think the context, for this one specific guy, meant that it could never just be a job. He had no peer group to share the experience with. He was breaking a strong taboo every time. I feel like if the preparation of the body was shared with a comunity - made in to a religious ceremony or something - it would have been a lot easier to handle. Instead it’s one dude, doing the horrible thing that no one else is willing to do
(and yeah, personally I also vote for giving your body to anyone who can use it for spare parts or education)
I’m happy to hand over all the kidneys, corneas, hearts, lungs, brains, livers, ears, and gonads the secondhand market can bear upon my demise, but I really wonder how many departments I gotta bribe to allow my skeleton to be denuded, varnished, wired, and delivered back to my family to be posed in the front hall as a coatrack.
Cremation has become something of a tradition in my family because we came to the U.S. recently and dirt poor. Most of us died still dirt poor or pretty close to it. It’s kind of an unintentional return to what our ancestors (at least as far as we can tell) were doing before their culture got *ahem* interfered with.
I thought I might like “dump my body in the woods” back when it seemed impractical to do it in the U.S. Now there are options. And I am certain I want to be cremated.
Definitely don’t want to be poured down the drain. (Just me and my corpse. Not making a judgement on anyone else’s preferences.)
This is why I want opt-out rather than compulsiary organ/body donation. If people want to be burnt/buried/dumped wherever/ stuffed and mounted at their favorite bar/whatever. That should be their right.
I like the one poster’s idea of turning his skeleton into a coat rack.
Well, people stuff is too light for silt refinement at the waterworks, but for the VOC management there, that might beat being turned into bug repellent or weed drowner.
Though I was trying to segue into the reactionary HPC of the moment, and imagining that the oathless candidate would imagine p0wning China’s (er…things) with a supercomputer they built for him and paid for, and uploaded people (yes, using the device in the article as the modem; fit for purpose) hand-picked to p0wn like 1000 Chinamen. Nuts, gave it away at the end. I really should have more respect for someone who can emulate 52% of voters while not being a minority or woman. Don’t, though.
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out
The ones that go in are lean and thin
The ones that crawl out are fat and stout
Your eyes fall in and your teeth fall out
Your brains come tumbling down your snout
Be merry, my friends, be merry
Well, there goes the country side. Corpses everywhere and wild animals with a taste for human flesh. Better to do it in the city, out back by the dumpsters and let the trash pandas handle it.
I don’t know if I’ve contracted some kind of reading disability, but “Have your boyfriend turned into effluent and just poured down the drain when you die:” was a more intriguing headline.
(Just me and my corpse. Not making a judgement on anyone else’s preferences.)
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out
