A person dies. The body is still there. Someone, somewhere, somehow must deal with the human remains.
Burial
Interment is a fine old tradition, as testified to by all the graveyards and cemeteries. Essentially, a burial is putting a body somewhere where it is likely to remain, usually undisturbed, into the foreseeable future.
- In the ground
- In a building: mausoleum, crypt, wall
- At sea
FYI: Although, historically, graveyards were attached to churches and did not allow cremated remains, there is no functional difference today between graveyards and cemeteries.
In Ground Burial
In-ground burial usually means a cemetery and involves a funeral home/director who makes sure all requirements are met. It’s the sort of thing most of us are familiar with.
Except in California, Indiana, and Washington State, it is legal to bury a corpse on private property, although rules and regulation apply.
- Obtain a permit for burial/transportation
- Follow local regulations regarding zoning laws embalming, refrigeration, and burial depth
- Get written approval. The local board of health and governing body may need to be notified in writing
- The property must be under the control of deceased’s family
So called “green burials” are growing in popularity. Natural burial grounds, cemeteries, and preserves all bury without embalming, liners, or vaults, and use biodegradable containers, whether caskets, shrouds or nothing at all. A variety of entities own and operate these cemeteries: municipal governments, religious groups, individuals, nonprofits, for-profits, and others. Many use GPS units or non-native stone markers to mark grave sites rather than carved headstones.
Both some Native American and Jewish communities traditionally use green burials.
Indoor Burials
In buildings, sometimes special requirements apply.
Most mausoleums require that a licensed funeral director has embalmed the body. Caskets must meet specific size requirements, and sometimes must have a self-sealing air valve.
Mausoleums are usually located in a cemetery or other place dedicated to the dead. They shouldn’t be noisy areas and should be well-maintained.
If you’re building a family mausoleum on private property, you must abide by local zoning rules.
Crypts are typically smaller than mausoleums and are often located in religious buildings or cemeteries. Owners often reserve crypt spaces for notable people.
Where space is scarce, people often turn to ossuaries for skeletal burial. After temporary burial in the ground (typically for a pre-determined period, such as ten years), a caretaker exhumes a corpse and transfers skeletal remains to a final—much smaller—resting place. Sometimes the bones go into an ornamental container; sometimes people display them in elaborate (if macabre) artwork.
Burial at Sea
People are still buried at sea, not just out of necessity but by choice—a choice growing in popularity.
The US Navy offers free burial at sea for eligible families of service members and veterans. The Navy performs such burials for an average of 1,500 cremated remains and 15 casketed remains per year.
Anyone can choose a burial at sea. The US Environmental Protection Agency has parameters for such burials and require a permit. The burial must take place at least three nautical miles from land. The ocean waters must be at least 600 or 1800 feet deep, depending on location. And the presiding entity must take measures to ensure that the remains sink rapidly and permanently.
Burning
The word cremation stems from the Latin word ‘crematio‘, meaning ‘to burn or destroy by heat’.
The form of body burning most common in the United Sates today is the modern cremation process, defined as the burning of a corpse using a column of flames at a temperature of around 1000 degrees Celsius in a furnace powered by natural gas or oil.
After the cremation procedure is complete, what remains are typically gray fragments including ashes from the cremation container and bone particles. Pulverizing these remains is typically the last step in the process.
Besides putting the cremains in an urn or box for burial or a place on the mantle, they can be
- Made into diamonds
- Tattooed into the beloved’s skin
- Made into jewelry
- Scattered; if over water, restrictions may apply
- Made into art glass
- Put into biodegradable balloons and released into the atmosphere
There are legal rules in many places that require a waiting period before cremation. This wait is also important for things like completing all the necessary paperwork.
Of all world religions, Islam opposes cremation the most strongly. Islamic teaching considers cremation to be an unclean practice.
Conversely, funeral pyres are an essential part of a Hindu funeral, which is why people still used traditional pyres in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
Water “Burning”
So called “water cremation”—aquamation—doesn’t actually involve burning. An alkaline hydrolysis machine contains a single air-tight and water-tight chamber. The chamber holds approximately one hundred gallons of liquid. A technician places the deceased into the chamber, then seals it. The contents may be subjected to heat (199 to 302 degrees Fahrenheit), pressure, and/or agitation (varying with equipment) to ensure proper cremation.
At the completion of the process, bone fragments and a sterile liquid remain. The bone fragments, now called cremated remains or hydrolyzed remains, appear pure white in color. Because the process uses water, the last step of the process is thoroughly drying the remains before pulverization.
Aquamation results in approximately 32% more cremated remains than flame-based cremation and may require a larger urn. On the other hand, it has less environmental impact (less air pollution and less energy needed).
On average, aquamation is slightly more expensive than traditional cremation because of the expense of the machines used. Typically, water cremation costs between $2,000-3,000, while flame cremation costs around $1,100-2,000. A traditional burial can cost between $7,000-12,000.
Exposure
The Lakota Sioux, Mandan, Cheyenne, Ute, and Navajo tribes often practiced tree burial, constructing platforms like a scaffold or tree to bring the deceased closer to the sky. Animals consume the body, bringing the life cycle full circle–similar to a Zoroastrian or Tibetan Sky burial.
In the Tibetan Sky burial, a celestial burial master chops the human remains into pieces and mixes them with barley flour. Then, a body carrier takes the mixture high into the mountains and leaves them for vultures. Everyone involved smiles and sings throughout the process to help guide the dead from darkness to the next stage. Tibetans see sky burial as a last gift to the universe — a way to show the insignificance and the impermanence of our earthly lives.
A Zoroastrian Tower of Silence holds human remains high above the ground, removing any chance of contamination. After carrion birds have stripped the bones clean of flesh, nusessalars (ritual pallbearers) transfer any remaining bones to an ossuary, mix them with lime, and allow them to disintegrate and return to the soil.
Preservation
Mummification, ancient as it is, is seldom practiced today. Natural mumification may occur, such as of people lost in the desert, but very few people choose mummification.
However, some villagers in Papua New Guinea still mummify their ancestors today. They believe that spirits will roam the earth after death unless their descendants maintain the body of the deceased. After death, family members place the bodies in a hut and smoke them until the skin and internal organs have desiccated. Then they cover the remains in red clay, which helps maintain their structural integrity, and placed the mummy in a jungle shrine. Villagers bring the bodies down from the shrine for celebrations, and loved ones visit the mummies to consult with their ancestors.
Cryogenics is, essentially, the opposite of mummification. The motivation is to preserve one’s body (or body part, typically the brain) in the hope that in the future, science will be able to correct or heal whatever the person died of, and the frozen person can live again. Today, liquid nitrogen tanks hold approximately 500 people globally for preservation, the vast majority in the United States. Around 4,000 people are on waiting lists of cryonics facilities around the world.
Useful as Well as Ornamental Remains
Some people plan before death to put their dead bodies to good use. Years ago, Mary Roach published Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Old, but still a great read!
Organ and tissue donation is well known. Just check the box on your driver’s license.
If you record your consent in the donation register, you can specify which organs or tissue you would like to donate. Several factors determine whether organs or tissue are actually useable for transplant, like their quality and whether or not a donor died in a hospital.
The donor must die in a hospital to be able donate organs. Organs need a supply of oxygen-rich blood to remain suitable for transplantation. After death, doctors hook up the donor’s body to artificial respiration to keep the heart beating, so that oxygen-rich blood continues to circulate.
By contrast, tissue donation is often possible if the donor dies in a non-hospital setting.
Not all organs and tissue types are suitable for transplant. Organs eligible for transplant are the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, and intestines. The skin, bone tissue (including tendons and cartilage), eye tissue, heart valves and blood vessels are transplantable forms of tissue.
Even if you are a registered donor, transplant teams may reject your organs or tissue after your death for medical reasons, for instance if you:
- Had blood poisoning (sepsis)
- Had an active viral infection
- Acquired a tattoo or piercing in the 6 months before your death
There is no general age limit on donation. Although the heart of an 80-year-old person would be too old for transplantation, their skin or corneas might still be suitable.
Medical Education
Color mezzotint by J.F. Gautier d’Agoty, 1745/1746
Medical students use whole bodies for education. None of the tissue goes for transplant into a living person (which distinguishes whole body donation from organ donation). Physicians, EMS personnel, even dental healthcare professionals practice their skills through studying donated bodies.
Some specialized educational purposes require “fresh” bodies or parts. For example, plastic surgeons cannot use embalmed heads in the course of their education.
But typically, when a donated body reaches the end of its usefulness, it goes for cremation. Upon request, the family might then receive the cremated remains.
Science
Some medical conditions or circumstances of death can make a body unacceptable for scientific study. Depending on the nature of the research, these include:
- Obesity/emaciation
- Amputations
- Unhealed open wounds
- Contagious diseases
For example, real human bodies were/are necessary to calibrate crash test dummies accurately for impact tolerance. Similarly, the military studies effects of bullets and bombs.
Whole body donation is not possible after an autopsy has been performed.
The Body Farm
The Body Farm is a special case of donating one’s body for science. The University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center is commonly known as the Body Farm.
At the Body Farm, students intentionally leave corpses out in the elements to study what happens as the body decomposes. The placement might expose the body to air, submerge it in water, bury it in a shallow or deep grave, allow access to scavenging animals, or any other circumstance. The goal is always the same: to simulate crime scenes so that students can document decay and learn to identify future victims (or the time and circumstances of their death).
Just as you can become an organ donor when you die, you can also choose to donate your body to the Body Farm. Medical examiners who cannot identify a corpse or locate next of kin are also primary providers of bodies to the facility. Since the inception of the Knoxville, TN lab, body farms have sprung up in Illinois, Texas , Colorado, Illinois, Florida, and North Carolina—and even exist outside the U.S. Facilities have opened in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom!
Bottom Line: Something will be done with your mortal remains. If you care, make provisions before you die, and tell your next of kin of your wishes!
