# What do you want to happen to your body after you die? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500 "2005-04-28T05:02:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/21 "2005-04-28T13:35:13Z")
I want them to donate as much of my body to medicine or science as possible. If there’s any left, it can be buried as austerely as possible, with a minimal Reform-ish service. I don’t want my death to impoverish the family. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/22 "2005-04-28T13:40:28Z")
I quite like the idea of being cremated and then having my ashes turned into a diamond by Lifegem or a similar company. Maybe there will be enough for two and my kids can have one each. It’s probably the most permanent form of memorial you can get, and they can feel free to move anywhere in the world without the guilt trip of not being able to visit my grave because I will (hopefully) always be with them. Not in spirit of course as I don’t believe in an afterlife, but my last remains can be with them. Also if they get into debt they can always sell or pawn me. As I’ll be dead it won’t matter to me. ---
**Author:** ![Graycat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Graycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graycat)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/23 "2005-04-28T13:42:38Z")
Another Body Farm vote here. It’s the closest I can get to sky burial in this culture. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/24 "2005-04-28T13:50:53Z")
> [@mcott](#): > > Organ donation, yes. Use my organs as you see fit. **It’s just a husk, anyway.** > \*\*Med School cadaver? Hell, no! \*\* I’ve been in the cadaver room at U of T, and it isn’t a pretty sight. > > Cremate (sp?) me, and disperse the remains somewhere nice. Like a strip club. Or Mont St Michel in France. Bolding mine; seems incongruous to me. As for me, harvest the organs, let the rest provide a meal for feral cats. Or whatever, I certainly won’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/25 "2005-04-28T13:53:24Z")
Catholic funeral mass, then military burial in a veterans cemetery. I earned that free plot and tombstone, and I’ll not have my wife and kids pay for one. Besides, I like veterans cemeteries. They’re invariably peaceful and beautiful places. I like hanging out with veterans in general, so it’s only fitting that I be planted with a bunch of them when the time comes. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/26 "2005-04-28T13:54:20Z")
Organ donation, then cremation. I have instructed my husband that if he puts me in a box in the ground where it’s cold and dark and there’s bugs, I will come back to haunt him. I’m not kidding, either. I want my “memorial” to be a party, with all my friends and family enjoying good food, good drink, each other, and memories of the time we spent together. I’ll furnish the keg and the buffet. Afterward I’d like my ashes to be scattered at Current Lake. I was baptized and married there, and it’s a gorgeous place. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/27 "2005-04-28T14:01:09Z")
If nobody needs my guts, call me a cadaver and send me to the lab. If the lab doesn’t want me, burn me, bury me or dump me. I don’t care. But since posthumous activities are for the living, I guess a decent low-key ceremony for a cremation is in order. And if you MUST spend a chunk of change on the affair, spend it on the wake. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/28 "2005-04-28T14:01:54Z")
I should have mentioned organ donation as well. It almost goes without saying in my family, as we’ve all specified this. My aunt has had two corneal transplants, so this hits home pretty closely. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/29 "2005-04-28T14:05:27Z")
Step 1: Harvest me, of course – whatever is still useful to someone else. Step 2: Still undecided. Some days I feel it would be an amusing parting shot, if I could afford it, to go full-on Lenin/Pharaoh on my empty container, complete with absurdly out-of-scale funerary edifice featuring heroic art and statuary of myself in made-up achievements. Other times I feel the simplicity of the orthodox Jewish/Islamic burial-in-the-Earth just can’t be beat. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/30 "2005-04-28T14:11:27Z")
As long as organ donation is done, I think I’d like whatever my family would prefer. I would want them to do whatever they wanted to do to feel less bad about the situation. If all of my friends and family were dead, and it was just me, I would probably donate my body to science or for some other useful purpose (even selling it to the highest bidder for any purpose, and donating the results to a charity), or, in the case that nobody would want anything with of my carcass, get cremated. I don’t see much sense being buried and taking up space. The Body Farm seems like a good idea, as I would definitely like for my body to possibly help forensic science solve unsolved crimes in the future. ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/31 "2005-04-28T14:27:32Z")
I wish for my body to be taken to a taxidermist and stuffed. An angry bear pose would work nicely- arms up ready to attack, teeth bared ready to attack…GRRRRR! All my relatives can take turns setting me next to their home entrances so I will have a chance to scare the crap out of all their friends. Should be loads of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/32 "2005-04-28T14:57:21Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > Harvest the organs if feasible, then direct cremation (no frills), with the ashes to be either scattered at an appropriate location or kept by a loved one, at that person’s discretion. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/33 "2005-04-28T14:58:51Z")
If I had my druthers, I’d be buried, unembalmed, beneath an unmarked oak tree in a wilderness preserve. Then my family would not know which tree was mine, and it’d be like the Little Prince, only different. Don’t think that’ll happen, though. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/34 "2005-04-28T15:31:05Z")
I’ve decided on cremation. It’s just cheaper that way. And yeah, organ donation and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/35 "2005-04-28T15:34:36Z")
I’d like my body to be resurrected as a brain-eating zombie and unleashed on London. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/36 "2005-04-28T16:31:03Z")
Whatever useful parts I have left I’d like donated. Then I’d like to be cremated and have my ashes spread somewhere as fertilizer, preferably a flower garden or a giant old oak tree. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/37 "2005-04-28T17:25:21Z")
Chum my ass up and feed me to the sharks. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/38 "2005-04-28T17:36:00Z")
Soylent green is Scumpup! ---
**Author:** ![SallyBowls](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@SallyBowls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SallyBowls)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/39 "2005-04-28T17:54:33Z")
I’d like to do the [LifeGem](http://www.lifegem.com/) thing and become a rather morbid piece of jewelry. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500/40 "2005-04-28T19:15:46Z")
I _ **want** _ to be buried in our backyard, although I imagine that’s illegal. I really like our yard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-happen-to-your-body-after-you-die/301500.md?page=3)