What'll we do with our dead?

the_pen_turner · 11-01-2019 12:48am

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Is cremation environmentally friendly, with all the gas and all? I don't like the idea of a graveyard, but what's the alternative?

solar rays amplified through a huge magnifing glass

Insect Overlord · 11-01-2019 12:56am

Dakhmas for the win.

11-01-2019 1:12am

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

Is cremation environmentally friendly, with all the gas and all? I don't like the idea of a graveyard, but what's the alternative?

I read about an alternative in the last few months, they were saying how the disposal options (burial or cremation) materials/fuel, the process and chemicals/by products are environmentally harmful whichever current option you decided on (it was referring to the USA so maybe its more applicable there), the alternative was you are placed in what seemed like a pressure cooker and liquefied via heat/bacteria? this took care of bones and everything, now I thought they would use the goo as a fertiliser but from what I recal the option they seemed to be thinking of was flushing you down the sewer.

foxy farmer · 11-01-2019 1:16am

Crowd of people around my grandparents table chatting at dinnertime during the harvest years ago. One of them pipes up.
"Well Jer you buried your father since we were here last. "
"We did boy." he replies. Sure we had to do something with him when he died."

Bigbagofcans · 11-01-2019 11:12am

Yes you're going out the same way you came in
Someone will notify your next of kin
Some will weep and some will moan some will spit upon your stone
But you're going out the same way you came in
Oh they lay you out in all your fancy clothes
And they'll figure out just who and what you own
Then the lawyers line their nest and your kinfolk gets the rest
But you can't take it with you when you go
Yes you're going out the same way you came in
No matter who you know or where you've been
Makes no difference who you are
Skid Row Joe or superstar
You're going out the same way you came in

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:21am

The Parsi people in India put their dead out to be eaten by vultures (it is also essential for them to have a dog at their funeral) - we could do something similar here, but with crows.

Deebles McBeebles · 11-01-2019 11:23am

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

You're going out the same way you came in

Certainly hope not. My mother will be long dead by then.

Bigbagofcans · 11-01-2019 11:26am

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Certainly hope not. My mother will be long dead by then.

You're going in the same way you came out :P

xi5yvm0owc1s2b · 11-01-2019 11:27am

Shannon Crematorium is now operational.

Built at a cost of €2.4m, it was completed after a nine-year planning process. The building includes a chapel, which can seat 140 people, with video screens where tributes can be played. There will also be a small chapel/hospitality area with seating for 60 where people can remain on after the cremation.

Mr Cranwell said: “We will help put together these tributes and families can also have webcam facilities which will enable families to have a ceremony transmitted anywhere in the world.”

So this is the future of death. You will be cremated while tributes air on video screens and your friends in far-flung countries watch a live stream on their iPhones.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:32am

Mercy Defeated History wrote: »

Shannon Crematorium is now operational.

So this is the future of death. You will be cremated while tributes air on video screens and your friends in far-flung countries watch a live stream on their iPhones.

God that sounds depressing. Give me a good 'oul balls to the wall Irish wake any day.

_Brian · 11-01-2019 11:37am

Hammer89 wrote: »

Let's call a spade a spade: graveyards won't last, will they? We're a godless generation, us Milennials. Has there ever been another generation as detached from religion as us? Potentially not, and if that's the case, which it might well be, then how is this not going to have a knock-on effect for traditional, Christian burials?

Funeral and burial preferences have changed quite a lot. There was a time when cremation was a bit bold in the eyes of the church, a bit un-Christian-like, but now 33% of dead people are opting for this. This highlights a detachment even in non-Millenials, so how different could the landscape be in 40 or 50 years, when it's our time to go?

I appreciate that it's popular for the ashes of deceased people to be buried in graveyards to this day, but there's a chance we'll move further away from this in time, as people grow less sentimental over the idea of being buried with their loved ones. It's a lovely idea and I've nothing wrong with it obviously, but I don't think my generation will draw the same warmth and solace from it as our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Who knows lads, but what I do know - or at least think - is that graveyards are f*cked. I'm not sure they'll physically go anywhere, but I do think the business side of them will suffer in the long run.

You don’t need religion for a burial though.

I was at the burial of a far out relation.
Five of us, funeral director and two grave diggers.

Collected him from mortuary, no prayers, he’s wife didn’t even go in to see the coffin being closed.

Drove straight to council run graveyard.

Myself, brother and two grave diggers lowered him into the ground and the lads started shivering in the clay, no priest, no prayers, nothing.

Had to count the grave location and write it down for his wife in case she ever wanted to go back, that’s maybe eight years ago and she never set foot back since that moment.

Personally I don’t care, cremate me and spread me somewhere in a nice deciduous forest and that would be grand.

seamus · 11-01-2019 11:43am

I don't particularly see an issue with graveyards; we all rot and feed the worms either way.

Though we should be encouraging the use of materials which degrade more quickly and discouraging the use of embalming fluids.

This stuff of pumping corpses full of preservatives and sticking them in strong and treated wooden boxes is perverse. You're going to bury them forever a couple of days later, why do they need to be robust?

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:47am

seamus wrote: »

I don't particularly see an issue with graveyards; we all rot and feed the worms either way.

Though we should be encouraging the use of materials which degrade more quickly and discouraging the use of embalming fluids.

This stuff of pumping corpses full of preservatives and sticking them in strong and treated wooden boxes is perverse. You're going to bury them forever a couple of days later, why do they need to be robust?

So the undertaker can charge grief-stricken relatives loads of money for it.

enda1 · 11-01-2019 11:52am

Cremation is not environmentally friendly at all!

I much prefer the idea of burial in linen garments with a new native tree forest growing out of your corpse. Of course after any medical implants and fillings have been removed in order to prevent heavy metal leaching and titanium waste etc.

The Davestator · 11-01-2019 11:53am

Fun Fact

Graveyards are in church grounds

Cemetery's are not in church grounds

blade1 · 11-01-2019 11:53am

randd1 wrote: »

Heard of this idea years ago of planting seeds with the body, and using the nutrients from decomposing body to grow trees or crops. Not a bad way to go.

If they do that with Donald Trump, this is what you would end up with!:eek:

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 11:54am

The Davestator wrote: »

Fun Fact

Graveyards are in church grounds

Cemetery's are not in church grounds

Every day's a school day - did not know that.

BeerWolf · 11-01-2019 12:19pm

Cremated or liquefied.

Deebles McBeebles · 11-01-2019 12:33pm

Has anyone mentioned wolves? I would happily donate my body to be a meal for a pack of wolves.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 12:35pm

Deebles McBeebles wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned wolves? I would happily donate my body to be a meal for a pack of wolves.

Hard enough to come by a pack of wolves in this part of the world though.
Badgers maybe?

Kevin Finnerty · 11-01-2019 12:40pm

Id love to be made into a fireside companion set or a knife holder for the kitchen.
Or made into a sandwich spread like Branston pickle or Ballymaloe Relish.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 12:42pm

Kevin Finnerty wrote: »

Id love to be made into a fireside companion set or a knife holder for the kitchen.
Or made into a sandwich spread like Branston pickle or Ballymaloe Relish.

Reminds me of the story about Keith Richards snorting his father's ashes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301135.html??noredirect=on

gozunda · 11-01-2019 12:50pm

Personally I've always advocated composting.

Looks like it's becoming a reality ...

"Recomposting" -- which advertises as more environmentally friendly than traditional funeral practices -- is a process where a human body is quickly decomposed using heat-loving microbes and beneficial bacteria.

See:

https://www.cnet.com/news/washington-bill-would-make-it-legal-to-compost-human-remains-into-soil/

....... · 11-01-2019 12:59pm

I knew a fella who had a viking burial (wasnt in Ireland), basically his family put him on a little boat going out into a lake that was ignited when it had reached a certain distance.

I do like the burial at sea option discussed here - is there any companies offering to facilitate it?

I always thought Id like to offer my remains off for plastination - that way I could be used for either medical teaching or in a museum/art display.

Maybe Ill opt for getting my brain cyrogenically frozen for wake up at some future point in a cloned body (hopefully a better one than my own) and just let the bag of meat be disposed of.

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 1:04pm

....... wrote: »

I knew a fella who had a viking burial (wasnt in Ireland), basically his family put him on a little boat going out into a lake that was ignited when it had reached a certain distance.

I often wonder about that when I see it on TV - I'd say it would take a lot of heat to break down a body, especially considering it is 60% water - you have to wonder if you'll be out fishing on the shore a few days later and pull Erik or Sigrid out in a big charred lump.

mordeith · 11-01-2019 1:06pm

I'm not sure how true this is but I was told that the heat in a crematorium isn't enough to reduce the body to the fine ash you get in the end. I think the bones survive and they have to be pulverized?

Gravelly · 11-01-2019 1:07pm

mordeith wrote: »

I'm not sure how true this is but I was told that the heat in a crematorium isn't enough to reduce the body to the fine ash you get in the end. I think the bones survive and they have to be pulverized?

Jaysus, I'd say a lot of relatives would be a little reticent about the cremation if they knew daddy was out the back under a power hammer.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 11-01-2019 1:08pm

....... wrote: »

I knew a fella who had a viking burial (wasnt in Ireland), basically his family put him on a little boat going out into a lake that was ignited when it had reached a certain distance.

I do like the burial at sea option discussed here - is there any companies offering to facilitate it?

I always thought Id like to offer my remains off for plastination - that way I could be used for either medical teaching or in a museum/art display.

Maybe Ill opt for getting my brain cyrogenically frozen for wake up at some future point in a cloned body (hopefully a better one than my own) and just let the bag of meat be disposed of.

Not sure. Probably not, as I’m sure it’s such a rare request.

....... · 11-01-2019 1:14pm

Gravelly wrote: »

I often wonder about that when I see it on TV - I'd say it would take a lot of heat to break down a body, especially considering it is 60% water - you have to wonder if you'll be out fishing on the shore a few days later and pull Erik or Sigrid out in a big charred lump.

I believe the lake used in the case of the guy I knew was a specific "burial lake" so people wouldnt have been fishing in it.

....... · 11-01-2019 1:15pm

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Not sure. Probably not, as I’m sure it’s such a rare request.

Must be common enough that it warrants guidelines from the government department though?

What'll we do with our dead?

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