What do you want doing with your body when you die?

[Pendaric]

Realistically, I suppose I'll end up cremated.

But I've always fancied being made in to the meat for the sandwiches at my wake.

[Brianna]

Cremated I hope. Tossed in The Lake for good measure.

[Alethias]

Natural Burial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_burial). I want to be planted in the dirt with a memorial tree planted in my name over my body, and my body be the trees fertilizer. I'd love for it to be in a well-used park or playground, and for people to have picnics in the shade of the tree that my body fertilized. But that probably violates burial laws. O well.

[Mediancat]

If they'll have it, I'll donate it to the Body Farm.

Rob

[Christina]

Cremated and spread around my garden or at least mixed into the compost pile.

[Oolon Colluphid]

I can't see how it'd be my concern, so I want those I care about who remain to do whatever makes them happiest. Or least unhappy, IYSWIM.

[PostMortem]

I want to be wrapped in primer cord and blown to smithereens.

[Lisa0315]

Whatever comforts the family the most. I honestly do not care. I want people to dance, laugh, tell stories, and remember me with joy.

[Christina]

I think that the moderator should fix the thread title. :p

[Pendaric]

I think that the moderator should fix the thread title. :p

?

What's up with it?

[Goldie]

I'm donating all parts donatable to people who need replacement parts...
Then, my body will go to science for study. Ohhhh! and they will like it with all of my heart stents and other medical implants...
Then... after its all done, what is left is to be cremated and the ashes spread at the Northfork of the Clearwater river at the Idaho / Montana border. It's my favorite place and I want my family to go there to enjoy the wilderness and remember me and how much I loved that place.

[Christina]

?

What's up with it?

I was teasing but shouldn't it be "What do you want done.."?

[Pendaric]

Then, my body will go to science for study. Ohhhh! and they will like it with all of my heart stents and other medical implants...


I suppose it depends on the area, but that might not be as straightforward as you think.

My granddad wanted his body donating to science, because he had had all kinds of stuff done and he liked to think of himself as a curiosity. The job of finding a place for it fell to me, and it was not at all easy. It took a lot of ringing round before I found somewhere that wanted him.

[Lisa0315]

Grammar Nazi-ing. :D

[Pendaric]

I was teasing but shouldn't it be "What do you want done.."?

I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

[Lisa0315]

It appears that they are both correct. I wrote it both ways in Word, and both sentences passed. No nasty underlines on either.

Lisa

[Christina]

Grammar Nazi-ing. :D

It's even weirder because I make a grammar mistake in at least half of my posts. I'm probably wrong, but we have a bunch of people here that I'm sure can correct one of us.

[Pendaric]

http://www.secularcafe.org/showpost.php?p=8219&postcount=133

I've put it up for adjudication...

[dancer_rnb]

I want a viking funeral!

Hey, where are the viking smilies?!:bang:

[Goldie]

I suppose it depends on the area, but that might not be as straightforward as you think.

My granddad wanted his body donating to science, because he had had all kinds of stuff done and he liked to think of himself as a curiosity. The job of finding a place for it fell to me, and it was not at all easy. It took a lot of ringing round before I found somewhere that wanted him.

My friend Patrick's spouse donated his body to a foundation. And.... they are doing all that was asked for, all paid for by them. Darrell's parts were donated to people, Patrick can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he knows where they went. Now he is being studied and... in 6 months or so he'll be cremated and his ashes given to Patrick.

[Lisa0315]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6tRB0HEPM

Everybody Sing!

I don't wanna be buried
In a Pet Semetary

[Puck]

Heh, I thought the Topic was what do I want to be doing with my body when I die. Lot's of good stuff came to mind, and then I realized I scanned the topic title wrongly...

I'd just as soon be put in a simple, home made pine box and put into the dirt as fertilizer. Alas, it can be done, but it's a pain in the butt, so send me to the crematorium.

[Christina]

http://www.secularcafe.org/showpost.php?p=8219&postcount=133

I've put it up for adjudication...

Haha :p

Maybe you're right and I misunderstood the thread title. Having sex or eating chocolate would be good.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

Any parts or parts-of-parts someone else can use, harvest away.

Torch the rest and scatter the ashes at dawn from the top of Mount Evans. Unless rules change, and the park service will let my friends build a pyre to burn what's left of me there (at dawn).

[Goodchild]

I can't see how it'd be my concern, so I want those I care about who remain to do whatever makes them happiest. Or least unhappy, IYSWIM.

I share this sentiment. Once I'm dead i'll have no concerns at all, least of which the disposition of the meat I formerly inhabited. But those who survive me will have their grief to handle and I want whatever brings them peace with my passing. I would, however, prefer cremation.

[His Noodly Appendage]

Organ donation, science, research, etc. I'd really like to donate my skeleton to a med school, on sole condition that it be named 'Freddy', and taken to all the parties.

More realistically, cremation, and scattered, not kept. A jar full of human remains on a shelf somewhere has always squicked me out - but more to the point, it seems like an unhealthy approach to loss, and I don't want that for my survivors.

If I had to have an actual grave (not that we'd ever be able to afford such a thing, even if we wanted it), then minimal, please. None of these ghastly tacky plinths. Just a marker. And on it, the words "I'm not here." Poignant on many levels at once, ne?

[David B]

I don't think it's legal, but I'd rather like to be buried at sea, where the crabs lobsters and prawns can eat my body.

Seems only fair, really. I've eaten enough of them.

David

[Worldtraveller]

You can still be buried at see, DB. My stepdad was.

I either want to be set adrift on a boat and lit on fire, Viking style, or I'm just going to wander out into the desert and lay down somewhere and let the coyotes have my meat.

[David B]

I suppose I could check it out.

I have a vague memory that one can be buried at sea under UK law, but wrapped up in something that will isolate the body from the sea, so you can't be eaten.

Perhaps I have that wrong, though

[Cath B]

I suppose I could check it out.



Good idea! Then I won't have to (assuming I survive you and am compos mentis.) :D.

I had to organise my husband's funeral last summer.

He died suddenly and unexpectedly and nothing had been planned.

I knew that he wanted to be buried.

There are plans afoot for a green woodland cemetery in our neighbourhood and we'd both said at some stage, "Yeah, that'd be al right".

But he died too soon (only54). :(:(:(

I managed to buy one of the last half dozen available spaces in the existing village cemetery in a windy spot overlooking the sea.

I bought a woven willow coffin - more my sort of thing than his: he'd have thought it typical of me. If I was doing it again, with more time to think, I'd have gone for a reinforced cardboard or thin pine coffin and got someone artistic to paint a leaping salmon on it.

But if I had my time again, I'd have done things differently so that he wouldn't have been home alone when he was, and would not have died. :(:(:(

I was too tardy to plant bulbs in the autumn, but I've planted some primroses I grew from seed and have just planted some snowdrops "in the green" to flower next year. I need to plant things for other seasons too.

[Cath B]

I had a big thing about not getting flowers from florists without knowing the environmental and human ethics of their origins.

So I asked a couple of friends (also friends of each other) to make wreaths (family only) using flowers from my garden and theirs.

One of them (an avid gardener) said "I would pick every flower in my garden for you".

[Cath B]

I bought a woven willow coffin - more my sort of thing than his: he'd have thought it typical of me.

I hadn't realised it would make me think inappropriately of the Fawlty Towers sketch where they find a dead body.

Actually, we had discussed willow coffins. I'd mentioned to him a scheme for setting up a business making wicker coffins and said if I made one for myself I could use it as a linen chest till it was needed: he thought the idea somewhat macabre.

[Puck]

Bobby just made a heart pine coffin for a guy. Rather traditional looking, but just the pine and some cloth lining. Now others want him to make one for them. My grandfather built his own coffin, and stored it under his bed. He also went out to the cemetery not long before he died and laid the bricks for his plot.

[Christina]

Joe and I discussed it and neither of us wants to be buried and we both want our organs donated. If we still live here we both want our ashes spread in the garden, and if we don't we'll rethink it. We don't really care very much. We both agree that the idea of the other one using their ashes as a decoration or hauling them around for the rest of their lives is creepy and unnecessary. The only hitch would be if I died before my mother, in which case I want him to do whatever makes her happy that isn't too hard on him.

[hecaterin]

Organ donation, fertiliser.

I seem to have a weird fear of being buried alive, so if I'm to be buried I also want my throat cut and a stake through my heart. Removing the heart for donations would also cover the contingency.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

...if I'm to be buried I also want my throat cut and a stake through my heart.

You just want to freak out whoever finds your grave in a few hundred years and feels compelled to write a paper about it.

Cool.

[LoneWolf]

First, I want the docs to take whatever from me that they can use to help someone else. I haven’t been as charitable as I could have been in life, maybe I can make up for it somewhat in death. Once that is done my family can do whatever they want that will give them the most comfort. I told my mom once that if it were up to me I would choose to be cremated and spread to sea and my wife is Buddhist so I am sure it will be cremation one way or the other. Apologies to future anthropologists but I would rather not take up space in a graveyard. But it isn’t something that keeps me up at night.

[Ray Moscow]

Organ donation if anything's salvagable.

For the rest: Either natural burial or cremation -- but probably the latter since it's much easier to arrange.

[ofro]

Organ donation if anything's salvagable.

For the rest: Either natural burial or cremation -- but probably the latter since it's much easier to arrange.

Organ donation first.

Leftovers: turn me into biodiesel (they are already doing it with beef tallow and chicken fat) and use it to go on a nice vacation in Yellowstone.

[hecaterin]

You just want to freak out whoever finds your grave in a few hundred years and feels compelled to write a paper about it.

Cool.Maaaaybeee....

[Pendaric]

You just want to freak out whoever finds your grave in a few hundred years and feels compelled to write a paper about it.

Cool.

How long does it take for a body to decompose down to skeleton? I would imagine that in a few hundred years there would be at least no sign of the cut throat.

[Brianna]

I want a viking funeral!

Hey, where are the viking smilies?!:bang:

ooo. yes fire.

[Brianna]

My mom wants to be donated to science but i don't think my baby sister will be okay with that. :(

[Uthgar the Brazen]

How long does it take for a body to decompose down to skeleton? I would imagine that in a few hundred years there would be at least no sign of the cut throat.

Maybe they'll leave the neck arched or something, leading to speculation about our strange practices and what religious belief compelled them. :)

[Lisa0315]

In North Carolina, you designate if you want to be an organ donor on your driver's license. I have that designation. I will have zero use for this body when I am gone. I hope any of my parts can be used to save a life or further research.

Lisa

[Uthgar the Brazen]

In North Carolina, you designate if you want to be an organ donor on your driver's license. I have that designation. I will have zero use for this body when I am gone. I hope any of my parts can be used to save a life or further research.

Lisa

But 5 minutes after the last of your organs is donated, the rapture happens. Then all your parts rip out of the recipients as god reconstitutes your body.

That's grody. To the max. :evil:

[Lisa0315]

But 5 minutes after the last of your organs is donated, the rapture happens. Then all your parts rip out of the recipients as god reconstitutes your body.

That's grody. To the max. :evil:

Things that make you go hmm...:D

[Pendaric]

I'm registered on the UK organ donor scheme. I think it should be an opt out rather than an opt in.

[Pendaric]

Bump for newcomers.

[Free in Freeport]

Bury me face down so the world can kiss my ass!

Actually, I've signed for organ donation / science. Maybe that way something good will come of my worthless existance.

[Matty]

I'm registered on the UK organ donor scheme. I think it should be an opt out rather than an opt in.

yes. exactly.

Organ donation followed by science for me. Science will have had the rest of my life so it may as well have the leftovers too.

[Master Taran]

Garnet's going to cook my ass down to ashes. Find the biggest bottle of Jack Daniels. Serve everyone at the party the Jack. Once that is done, she's to put my ashes in the bottle.

[Tangiellis]

Cremated and the ashes poured into the Pacific Ocean.

[Mung Dynasty]

Don't give a rat's. It's dead meat. Use it for dog food or compost it or something. No fucking embalming bullshit though (with apologies to future archaeologists). No point poisoning good compost. Trees and flowers and chirping birds FTW.

[Alethias]

Don't give a rat's. It's dead meat. Use it for dog food or compost it or something. No fucking embalming bullshit though (with apologies to future archaeologists). No point poisoning good compost. Trees and flowers and chirping birds FTW.Pretty much, but my family will feel a need for ceremony, which is why I picked Natural Burial as the third answer in the thread. It'll give them the chance to feel like they've done my dead meat justice, and the worms and bacteria get to eat something tasty and the trees around me get a teensy bit of nutrition for a few weeks/months that way.

Cremated and the ashes poured into the Pacific Ocean.Interesting and Kool, given that your location is listed as Providence, Rhode Island....

[Daynna]

mummy

[Matty]

you know they pull your brain out of your nose with a hook to do that, right?

[halii]

I always thought i wanted to be cremated and have my ashes spread somewhere. Well, technically i always wanted to be buried at sea. but I don't think that's realistic. :)

i guess when my friend died it was nice having a grave to i dunno, put flowers down on or whatever. some form of memorial might be nice, but i just don't care about it myself.

[Cheese]

They will harvest any organ that has use and give it to someone who needs it. Then my body will be donated to science and afterwards cremated and sprinkled on a nice beach in the Caribbean.

Burying a dead body is just so repulsive to me.

[Daynna]

Matty, I'll donate my huge brain to science of course! :)

[reddhedd]

I've already made my kids promise that I'll be cremated and mixed into the soil, and a large tree is to be planted there. (not a two foot twig!)
Then, they're to build a comfy bench and set it beneath the tree and I want them to bring the grandkids to picnic there regularly, talk about me, reminisce, laugh, run around, climb the tree, etc. I may be dead, but I don't want to be forgotten in a couple of years! And, I think it's a good legacy...fertile soil, a pretty tree, happy memories.

[Valheru]

I wanna be wrapped in ropes, weighted down, and dumped in the ocean. Let the seafood get some of their own back.

[Eudaimonist]

Ideally? Cryonic suspension.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[Loren Pechtel]

I don't care. They don't want my organs, beyond that I see nothing that makes any difference. She can do whatever makes her comfortable.

[Lugubert]

None of my business. My organs will be well past best before date. I've promised my relatives that I won't protest their decisions.

OTOH, in a fairly recent relationship I threatened my then fiancée that should I die and she would decide other than my wishes, I would haunt her for the rest of her life. She would have been meticulous in carrying out my secular schemes.

[premjan]

As long as they wait until one is quite dead it doesn't matter.

[A Dead Relative]

When I die, I want an Ecological burial (http://www.promessa.se).

I also want them to throw a big party in memory of me, with live rock music and a big barbecue, instead of the traditional boring and sad funeral.

(I bet this sounds funny, from someone who goes by "A Dead Relative.")

[Bright Life]

Same as many. Use it up, wear it out. Toast the rest.

I'd fancy the rest to be made into a diamond. I like sparklies!

[Valheru]

Screw the dumping in the ocean. I'm donating my body to science fiction.

[Jack]

I'm an organ donor, but I don't care what happens to my body after I die. I'll never know.

[Monad]

I like the Ferengi custom of having the body freeze dried and sliced into hundreds of little disks that are then sold as keepsakes. Good way of avoiding funeral expenses and ensuring the family is financially supported after death.

[lex]

Secretly made into soup and served at a banquet of the college of cardinals.The ritual cannibalism of wine and wafers is fine for the flock, these blokes deserve much better.

[Deacon Doubtmonger]

I'm donating all parts donatable to people who need replacement parts...
Then, my body will go to science for study. Ohhhh! and they will like it with all of my heart stents and other medical implants...
Then... after its all done, what is left is to be cremated and the ashes spread at the Northfork of the Clearwater river at the Idaho / Montana border. It's my favorite place and I want my family to go there to enjoy the wilderness and remember me and how much I loved that place.
My plans are similar to yours. I'll donate what I can, then it's off to science, except in my case med students will open my skull and find only:

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/photos/nuts_inkwell_003.JPG

Then:

Ideally: Cremation, then my ashes mixed with Mrs. D's :love: :love: :love: and our cats' and scattered over Garden of the Gods:*

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/3150133368_510ffc9d7e_m.jpg

Our "grave marker" would be a plaque of this Charles Levendosky poem mounted by one of the walking paths:

What a Volcano We Were

“When we die,” he says, “let them cremate us
and mix our ashes in the same urn and carry us
high above the Earth, above the Rockies,
and spill us into air. Let us tumble down
(Oh, didn't we tumble?)
dancing like volcanic ash returning home
(And didn't we dance?).
We will color sunsets and even the moon
will blush. Those who still look
to the heavens to dream
(as we did)
will know lovers have touched the sky.”

(Call me crazy, but I'd love to give the parkgoers hope of a blissful lifetime marriage!)

Realistically: Mrs. D will stuff me in the oven, run about ten self-clean cycles, then flush my ashes down the toilet. Not only do I not want her in hock up to her eyeballs over my corpse, but I've spent my whole life with my mind in the sewer; it seems fitting my bodily remains should end up there.
_________________

*I'm shocked James Dobson hasn't sued the City of Colorado Springs for promoting polytheism ...

[Valheru]

Secretly made into soup and served at a banquet of the college of cardinals.The ritual cannibalism of wine and wafers is fine for the flock, these blokes deserve much better.

Or disguised into soya pies at a PETA rally :evil:

[Sticky Beak]

I'm a registered organ donor, in part because I'm afraid of being buried alive. No chance of that with heart, kidneys and lungs missing.

After all is harvested, doesn't really matter. Cremation probably. Saves room.

[Pendaric]

Or you could get your kids to put you in the freezer...

Woman keeps mother's body in freezer for 20 years (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/27/body-found-in-freezer)

[A Dead Relative]

They took cryogenic freezing the wrong way.

[Pendaric]

Bump for newcomers.

[Bane]

Unholy ritual to resurrect me would be nice ;)

Other than that, donate any bits of me still in working condition, burn the rest and throw the ashes in the sea.

[willynilly]

Cremation, ashes in the Ohio River.