Yes the lantern burn, burn it easy,
And broadcast, so raw and neatly,
Thunder roll, sunshine, work it out ..
I came across this on wikipedia recently.
If you can't be arsed with extra curricular reading, the article describes an alternative technique for disposing of corpses other than burial/cremation: dissolving the body in lye solution, in what is essentially a giant cooker. After which, the remains go down a drain.
If you can't be arsed with extra curricular reading, the article describes an alternative technique for disposing of corpses other than burial/cremation: dissolving the body in lye solution, in what is essentially a giant cooker. After which, the remains go down a drain.
Is this dignified? Issues surrounding dignity isn't something I can offer much toward, considering I once had a 15 minute long discussion with someone in my first year of university on 'crop-dusting', the act of farting in a crowd before making your exit.
Cremation has some good Viking undertones; burial is something that everyone accepts as traditional. Even donating your body to science has some relevance and dignity to it, if perhaps in a post-modern kind of way. But, regardless of the fact that after death your body is a useless, empty vessel, there's still something slightly macabre and unsatisfying about having your remains dissolved into a gloop and flushed away.
It does raise several ethical issues.
In this day and age, when we hear of traces of prescription medication turning up in our water supply, is bits of dissolved corpse really something we want to add to the list of things we have to contend with when we go for a glass of water?
The odd, inadvertent dose of prozac is one thing; accidentally waltzing into casual cannibalism and drinking the dregs of someone's grandma who died two weeks previously is another thing entirely.
The odd, inadvertent dose of prozac is one thing; accidentally waltzing into casual cannibalism and drinking the dregs of someone's grandma who died two weeks previously is another thing entirely.
Otherwise, the only real train of thought is that, simply, you'll be dead. Ultimately, will it matter? I've already signed a form signing away my organs but they can also turn my head into a bong if they so wish. I've actually given no real thought to what happens to my body, though if I ever raised the funds I'd opt to have myself stuffed, mounted and possibly cast in bronze on Huddersfield ring road to leer at all the motorists and pedestrians coming in from Almondbury.
I realise there'll probably be some issue surrounding my stuffed and bronzed remains being used as a tourist deterrent.
Failing this, I wouldn't be too fussed about being dissolved. Maybe someone could make a lava lamp out of me. That'd be kind of awesome.
