I took inspiration from my late partner. She willed her body to a local University for research. They came and got her body and later returned her ashes to me. I signed up for the program.
There are also lots of programs for organ donation.
thats a good idea, we can do the same here in Canada, in British Columbia and Alberta, where we have funeral homes, the university can refuse to take the body at their discretion. I just had a case like that.
I own a funeral home, I will be cremated and my ashes along with my pre deceased pets will be dumped in the woods near here (aka scattered)
I gave my body to an organization in Tennessee, that will leave my body open to the elements and use the data to fight crime. I want my body to be consumed by life. The way I see it, I fed on flora and fauna my whole life, it's their turn to feed on me and I don't mean that in a morbid way.
I'm being cremated with no funeral and being sprinkled under a willow tree I planted to help nature.
Oddly, while I am not religious (though I come from a religious background in Catholicism), and while I don't believe in any resurrection nonsense; I do for some reason want to be buried in a quiet location with a headstone. I don't care about the embalming part or a vault. Just a wooden box would be fine. I know the right answer is donate the body to science, or cremation... I just prefer the idea of a burial in the earth and a wooded gravesite with a modest stone marker. Perhaps with a slightly clever caption like: John Doe... Dead. Or, I Told You I Was Sick!
I was initially going to be cremated, then I heard how much energy is required to burn you into ashes and I had second thoughts. When I moved here to Alachua County, I discovered that there is a piece of property that is being paid for to be kept in conservation by allowing burials onsite for a fee. I loved the idea and changed my directives to use them.....with just a cheap, biodegradable balsa wood box for a coffin. Look for other places like this.[conservationburialinc.org]
How cool! Thanks for sharing this link. I'm in TN. Maybe I can find something like this near me. However, it doesn't really matter where I return my self to the earth, does it?
Found one... Yay! I'm so glad to have come across your comment. Thanks again! [npr.org]
I've been very very specific. I want to be cremated, and for my ashes to be scattered in a specific area of a nature reserve where I spend a LOT of time, knowing that the ashes will enrich the soil and promote the growth of plants that will be used by all manner of creature. That's my route to immortality
Cremation. To me, the two biggest wastes of real estate on the planet are cemeteries and golf courses. I don't want my dead body and some useless box taking up space. What anyone chooses to do after that is up to them. I'll be dead, so it won't matter what I think about what anyone does. Kind of hope they have a party and swap stories about me at my most maddening and ridiculous. Have a drink, smoke a bowl, and remember me with some fondness.
Such a great point of view! We should put an absolute end to using up real estate for graveyards. As for me, my body goes to a university for med student to learn from.
My body is to be cremated. There will be no service of any sort -- no funeral, no wake, no "celebration of life. If my wife outlives me, she has agreed to take my ashes to Kansas. There she and my two daughters are to scatter my ashes on windswept Lucas Point on Wilson Lake -- a lake where I spent many days fishing. Just the 3 of them. I asked that they play the "Ashoken Farewell' -- a beautiful, haunting tune.
Organ donor, then cremation then mixed with the ashes of my beloved cat, Lola and mixed with soil to be planted with a tree.
Straight cremation. No service. No religious ceremony.
I have bought a new box of trash bags and kept my garbage bill paid.
I am a Nurse and an organ donor. Provided there is anything useful left of me, otherwise, I want to be cremated and buried in a Bios Urn so I can become a Tree. [urnabios.com]
I will be give a natural burial at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery.
I haven't made formal plans as of yet; but I have told my daughters that I want to be buried in a mushroom suit and then have what's left used as compost to plant a tree, shrubs, whatever. I don't know it it's available yet in Oregon. If not, I hope it will be before I die.
After a particularly powerful experience at the Temple at Burning Man, I have told my friends that I want to be cremated in the Temple at the next Burning Man. It's cremation and ash distribution combined. If there's any Spiritual world, the Temple is a portal. I've never really believed in any god or afterlife, but after my personal experience on that Temple day, my disbelief has been challenged.
I once told my college English professor in front of the entire class in answer to her question similar to this that people who knew me should give me a "Belters" send off from Larry Niven's known universe books... Sit around drinking while telling tall tales about my life. After that I added since I would no longer have a need for my body as far as I was concerned they could throw it on the BBQ so the cannibals could eat me...
I intend to avoid cremation as it produces lots of carbon dioxide. I intend to avoid embalming as it requires toxic liquids. I understand that there is a 6-ply kraft paper bag large enough for a body, so I hope to be buried in a green cemetery or orchard which both of my grandfathers had.
I’ve instructed that there be no religious ceremony, and that I want to be buried not cremated. If my mother outlives me, my partner will be in a fight to keep the religion out. I wish I could give my body to be studied by letting it naturally decompose for science, but it seems there are long waiting list for those sites, I’ll keep trying though.