# Shipping a Body "Home" For Burial? Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095 "2013-10-12T21:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/21 "2013-10-13T02:13:13Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > We must have very different thoughts about this. I respected Laura’s wishes, but honestly, how would she have known if I didn’t? She wouldn’t, now, of course, but that’s not the point. Presumably you spoke with her before she died about her wishes? At any rate she conveyed the information to people she trusted _while she was alive_. Would you have lied to her in that conversation near the end? Would you betray the trust placed in you by your (then) living friend? No, of course not. > [@](#): > > I did it for me, it made me feel better to do what she wanted, but she is dead and gone. All that was left was meat and we choose to treat it with honor and respect. Yes, but _why_ did it make you feel good? Why honor the remains? Because it was the right thing to do. Because of the relationship with the living person, the respect you had _and have_ for that person, and the trust she had in you. Right? That a person has died does not make them less real, or our relationship with them less meaningful. It just means that they are no longer… present. A removal in time is not so different from a removal in space. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/22 "2013-10-13T05:29:37Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I mean, the guy is dead-he/she neither knows nor cares what happens to the earthly remains. Would you spend the dough to do this? > I really don’t see the need for this-do you? Most funeral customs aren’t really for the benefit of the deceased so much as they’re for the benefit of those left behind. ---
**Author:** ![TashaKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/23 "2013-10-13T05:39:20Z")
Dead or not, it’s still your loved one’s body. I’m getting teary-eyed at the very notion of not giving a crap about the body of my mom or dad, the people who gave me life and sat up with little kid me when I was sick and read me stories and showered me with love. If your beloved mother or father died overseas, you would be content to just abandon the body there? What about saying your last goodbyes? I think I need to go to bed because I’m fighting back tears here, literally. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/24 "2013-10-13T07:07:19Z")
My parents have given all of their kids the phone number of the funeral director who will take their bodies to the local university for use by medical students. They have also insisted that their be no formal funeral. Perfect. I told my kids to just chuck my body in the [Otto bin](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=otto+bin&newwindow=1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=TkZaUqqCG4q1iQeYi4GgAw&ved=0CFYQsAQ&biw=1719&bih=966&dpr=1) on the next garbage night. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/25 "2013-10-13T07:53:32Z")
On one side of my family, the bodies are returned for burial. On the other side, we “Let the chip fall where they may”. If my uncle dies outside of his county, we bury him where he died. Many of my kin on that side of the family are buried over seas. One uncle on Bataan, another on the Normandy countryside. My great grandfather is in either Spain or Kenya, or buried at sea. We know not. One aunt is in Brazil. One of my great uncles just disappeared sometime after his 25th birthday. We think he was in, or near New Zealand. As for myself, where ever I am, just leave me there. First harvest all of the usable parts, then if possible, use my body for education or research. Then burn the rest and spread the ashes over the ocean or forest. Do not keep my ashes in an urn. Throw them in the outhouse if you need, but do not keep them. No ancestor worship for me thank you! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/26 "2013-10-13T13:01:17Z")
Of course I would respect the last wishes of my parents relatives and friends. But I find myself puzzled-if you are a believer (that something like a soul survives death), what is the point of worrying about the remains? Recently, I attended my aunt’s funeral-she was buried in the same cemetery that my paternal grandparents are interred in. naturally, we made a brief visit to the grave. I had no feeling that anything associated with these two fine people was there-just a stone marker and a few flowers. Perhaps most people are at heart like the ancient Egyptians, who believed that the earthly body still offers a home to the soul (“ka”)? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/27 "2013-10-13T14:34:01Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Some people feel better if they get to “visit” the dead at the cemetery. You’re not going to get to do that if your loved one is buried a huge distance away. I think the opposite would be great… for the poster above, I would love to have an excuse to take an annual trip to the Bahamas each year. Gotta visit Granny you know… it’s a sacrifice we have to make. I’ve told my family they are fine to just toss my body in the dumpster behind the morgue. I’m sure though that they will end up with a box of ashes that they don’t know what to do with. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/28 "2013-10-13T22:11:30Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I mean, the guy is dead-he/she neither knows nor cares what happens to the earthly remains. You don’t know that. Unless you yourself are dead… wait… holy crap, are you ghost posting? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/29 "2013-10-13T22:40:15Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > You don’t know that. Unless you yourself are dead… wait… holy crap, are you ghost posting? :eek: Wow! A zombie thread that is only a day old! Quite the concept! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/30 "2013-10-16T04:41:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Yeah, just leave him in a ditch for the weevils. 😛 Take him to Joshua Tree for an impromptu cremation. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/31 "2013-10-16T16:29:51Z")
> [@choie](#): > > I swear sometimes questions here sound like they were written by Data just after he was turned on for the first time. “What is this thing you hoo-mans call ‘caring about loved ones’?” I call these “alien questions,” because they sound like they were written by some space creature who has no clue as to how humans think. Seriously, you ship someone’s body home because you want to be able to visit their gravesite without having to hop on a plane to Elbonia or whatever far-flung locale they die in. It’s not complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095/32 "2013-10-16T16:48:11Z")
> [@choie](#): > > I swear sometimes questions here sound like they were written by Data just after he was turned on for the first time. “What is this thing you hoo-mans call ‘caring about loved ones’?” > > Seriously, what a strange question. My mother died at an experimental cancer clinic in the Bahamas. (This was back in the 1980s.) Should we have just dumped her there instead of bringing her home to be buried next to her little son and, when the time came, her husband? So those of us who weren’t with her when she died would feel as if we’d had no closure? No grave to visit? > > Not everyone feels this way, of course. And I can understand why. But I can’t fathom _not_ understanding the reason many of us want our loved ones buried in roughly the same location. This. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shipping-a-body-home-for-burial-why/671095.md?page=1)