:rolleyes:
You are so wei…Oh, never mind. 
Immediate cremation for me. My husband also works at a funeral home, and I don’t even want a viewing. If you have a viewing, or your body has to be shipped anywhere, you have to be embalmed.
No embalming for me. It’s the whole process of embalming (and to a lesser extent, burial) that skeeves me out.
Immediate cremation, please, and scatter the ashes.
Why postpone the inevitable?
Being stuffed and put on display worked for Jeremy Bentham. In the 1830’s or 40’s he left money in his will to a college with the stipulation that he be stuffed, and brought to every board meeting. They still comply. They keep him in a closet in the board meeting room, and when it’s time, they just open the doors.
I want to be cremated. After they take any and all organs/tissues/bodily parts that might in any way be useful to anyone else. Then set my ass on fire, from ashes to ashes.
Then I’d like all of my friends to take a small portion of me, that last remaining bit of ash. Find someone that I don’t like. Be it Jerry Fallwell, George Bush, the worthless life-form who cut me off on the freeway the other day or anyone being cruel to an animal. Take that little bit of me, that small portion of what remains of my worldly existence and throw it in their face.
Tell 'em “Jonno says hi.”
This is my legacy. Make me proud.
Extra crispy please.
I’d like to be cremated, ashes scattered to the winds from a mountaintop.
My Grandpa was cremated and his ashes were supposed to be buried in his parents grave out in BC… sadly as far as I know he is still in a box at the crematorium.
[sub]I keep wanting to spell cremated ‘creamted’ I dunno why my fingers just flow that way.[/sub]
huh. I looked him up, finding the story a bit odd.
well, it’s true…kinda.
It was wax over his skeleton, so he was more like one of the wax figures as opposed to a taxidermist type thing.
he’s at the University College, London.
I find nothing about board meetings though.
My wife and I had long ago agreed on cremation after donation of any usable organs. I will be keeping her ashes on an urn on the mantlepiece (I have been informed in no uncertain terms that I am not permitted to die before her). We’ve never actually discussed what’s supposed to be done with my ashes, although I think I’ll probably ask that they be mixed with hers and then scattered somewhere in Ireland (assuming I can find someone willing to take them there).
Of course, I also once threatened to have her stuffed and mounted with a clock in her belly…
Creamation. Put the ashes in a dumpster if you like. I’m dead. I don’t care. Of course, whatever makes the family and friends get over the loss would be fine also. They could spread them in the ocean if that makes people feel better.
reminds me of a poem by a guy i know called Jim O’Rourke.
Funereal
Not for me the incense,
that winds around the pillars
and out into the churchyard.
Not for me the broken speeches,
the long wait
until the final jaunt.
Not for me the sudden friends,
the dinners back home
waiting in the oven.
Not for me that hole in the ground.
Scatter me wild.
although i’d prefer my ashes to be laid beside the people i love most, maybe in a forest.
Burn, baby, burn.
Then scattered in Puget Sound.
Smoke me, and throw my ashes in my wife’s chili sauce.
After all my useable organs had been removed for transplantation, I would opt for cremation, then well…decoration
Here’s a site:
http://jeromekahn123.tripod.com/utilitarianismtheethicaltheoryforalltimes/id4.html
It’s in the fourth paragraph.
Stranger than fiction, eh?
Organ donation, then cremation, or natural burial, or throw me in a ditch. Don’t care, just don’t spend a bunch of money on a coffin, embalming, making me look “natural”, etc. Take the money and throw a kick-ass party.
The responses to this thread have overwhelmingly favored cremation or other non-traditional options. I would guess that that the general population strongly favors the traditional approach. XJETGIRLX, Do you have information about this? Are Dopers more pragmatic about death than people in general?
Cremation has surged to the lead in North America over the past 20 years, according to a conversation I had with a funeral director last week. The main reason seems to be cost-- that and people realize they don’t visit graves, so why the hell shoud their’s be neglected.
For me, part of it’s practicality, and frugality.
I can’t see spending $3,000 (or more…some caskets can run $10,000+ :eek: ) on a box to stick in the ground that’s going to be ruined by my decomposing body. I don’t even want a simple pine box to be cremated in; I want the $75 cardboard box.
The whole process of embalming just creeps me out. Contrary to what StPaul, they don’t rip out your teeth. They will sift through after the cremation and remove any metal bits. It used to be left rather coarse, like kitty litter, but many crematories will now grind the cremains up quite fine so it’s more like ashes.
Pacemakers and metal hips and the like do have to be removed beforehand, though.
The decomposition process after embalming is rather gross, too, IMHO. It makes the whole process much more drawn out and is much grosser. Laws vary by state of course, but in Maryland caskets must be sealed in concrete vaults in the ground. That just adds to the delay of a natural process. Your body has been embalmed (preserved, if you will), and placed in a water-tight casket (and in some cases, water-proof casket), and then in a sealed concrete vault underground. You’ll stay in that semi-preserved state a loooooong time. The decaying process takes years. Ick, ick, ick.
Why delay the inevitable? Just get it over with.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Barbarian *
Cremation has surged to the lead in North America over the past 20 years, according to a conversation I had with a funeral director last week. The main reason seems to be cost-- that and people realize they don’t visit graves, so why the hell shoud their’s be neglected. QUOTE]
Yes, you guys are definitely way ahead of the curve. Our funeral director quoted to me that somewhere around 30% of funerary arrangements around the country are cremations, compared to under 10% about a decade ago. (sorry no cite, but he’s a pretty sharp tack, so I’ll take his word for it).
I think that cost definitely has something to do with it, but also I think it’s important to take regional differences into account. I live in the south, and that means that a lot of funerals can last a week or so. Subsequently, there’s only one crematorium in my city.
I’d say for the most part that all the responses I’ve read have been way more insightful and intelligent (of course!) than most of the conversations I’ve had with other people on the topic in general.
I’ve also seen far too many situations play out where the dearly departed has failed to make their wishes known regarding their final arrangements, and families are left with the task of sorting things out. Hubby told me of one guy that spent almost a month in the cooler because his three children were bickering over the details, and none of them would budge. They finally ended up having three separate services. Kind of selfish, in my view.
I think it’s great when people actually talk about death in a rational light. Far too often people try to put it out of their minds to keep from having to deal with it. There is an incredible amount of fear and distrust of bringing the subject up that has allowed the funerary industry to become incredibly corrupt. I think that if people asked more questions and were less afraid, there wouldn’t be quite so many gruesome discoveries like the one up in Georgia not too long ago.
Sorry for the mini-rant, it’s just a pet topic of mine. If anyone has any questions, feel free to e-mail me or start a thread. I’d like to start one, but I don’t know if there would be much interest.
Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know how much I appreciate this thread. It’s incredibly interesting to see people’s responses.
How about one branch of my family - when my Aunt died a few years ago, she was cremated and her ashes remained in the cardboard box from the crematorium. In a garage. At my parent’s house in Florida. For a year and a half. Why, you ask? Turns out that my cousins were “too busy” with their lives (careers, military commitments, etc.) to be able to get together for a memorial service, funeral or whatever.
So, when they finally got together for the service, it was kind of a double-duty gathering. On Tuesday, they officially “buried” my aunt. On Wednesday, my Uncle got married to his new wife…
And, the tally to date:
Burn - 30
Traditional burial - 2
Natural burial or similar - 4
Creatively alternative method - 9
Undecided - 1
Not planning to die - 1
(although, the more I think about that Plastination thing, the more it intrigues me…)
Burn me. Let the Sun set and let life continue without me.
I can imagine what you might mean, but this really is a sentence I never thought I’d see.