death and what comes after

MORTAL REMAINS

Posted on by vlaw759

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

The Mushroom Burial Suit, invented by Jae Rhim Lee, is threaded with mushroom spores to help the body decompose after 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

Some mausoleums are grander than others.

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

Funeral pyre in Ubud, Indonesia

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.

Vultures at a 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.

Sunflowers preserved in liquid silicone oil, by Marc Quinn

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

“Muscles of the back: partial dissection of a seated woman, showing the bones and muscles of the back and shoulder”
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!

SIX FEET UNDER—OR NOT (LEGAL EDITION)

Posted on by vlaw759
“Fantasy Coffins” are currently a very popular method of burial in Ghana.

Death is a big deal, both in real life and in fiction. And where there is death, there is (usually) a body to be disposed of. Most of us have a pretty clear idea of what happens when someone in the family dies.

In my family, the body is taken from the hospital to a local funeral home. It is embalmed and displayed in an open casket, sometimes a half casket. Relatives and friends gather to reminisce and grieve together during viewing hours at the funeral home. A memorial service is held at the funeral home or the deceased’s church, according to religious preferences. Everyone is then invited to proceed to the cemetery for a brief graveside service and burial in a family plot.  Friends and family are often invited to gather at a relative’s home to eat, drink, and be memorializing.

Fluffy white collars are the standard uniform at medical schools today.
(The Anatomy Lesson by Dr. Sebastiaan Egbertsz by Aert Pietersz)

But families differ. My father-in-law, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law all donated their bodies to medical schools. There was a memorial service near the time of death. When the cremains (cremated remains) were returned to the family (maybe as much as two years later!), there was a graveside service when the ashes are buried in a family plot, attended by immediate family and intimate friends.

I’ve also been involved in scattering the ashes of two friends, one on Cape Cod and one on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In both cases, there was a memorial service soon after death and the ashes were scattered weeks or months later.

There is a growing trend in some places (Puerto Rico and New Orleans, for example) for “Extreme Embalming.” Rather than being laid out in a casket, the deceased is dressed and posed to be as lifelike as possible. These elaborate presentations are often the main attraction at huge, rowdy parties celebrating the deceased.

Party on!

In my personal experience, dead bodies have been disposed of in pretty unspectacular ways.

But Wait! There Are Options!

The first option comes before the body is actually disposed of: the body can be taken home until time for permanent disposal, as long as it can be kept cool, for example using dry ice.

WAYS TO DISPOSE OF A BODY LEGALLY

Artificial reef made with human ashes.

Watery Graves

  • Burial at sea, traditionally, meant a body wrapped in sailcloth and tied with weights to make sure it sank. Modern whole body burial at sea still occurs, and it involves the entire un-embalmed body being sunk in the ocean to great depths. Laws vary by jurisdiction.
  • Ship burial is a form of burial at sea in which the corpse is set adrift in a boat.
  • Reef casting, for example using Eternal Reefs, involves  mixing ashes with environmentally safe concrete. The resulting reef is placed in the ocean, where it becomes a habitat for sea life. Reefs range in price from $3,000 to $7,500, and there are locations for reef casting along the east and gulf coasts of the U.S.

Cremation And Its Alternatives

  • Traditional cremation is king, in the US and internationally. Although rare in the developed world until the late 19th century, it gained popularity following WWI. The body can be taken directly from the place of death to the crematorium. After the cremation, there are numerous options. Cremains can be scattered, buried, or neither (see below). 
  • Alkaline hydrolysis (aka water cremation): boiling water washes over the body constantly until the flesh, muscle, and organs liquefy. A chemical catalyst, usually potassium hydroxide, causes the decomposition. When complete, bleached bones and liquid human runoff remain.  After the body has been dissolved, the remaining bones are crushed into ash and returned to the family, much like the remains are returned after traditional cremation.  The system is 100% pollution free. It uses 1/10th the electricity of a traditional cremation. Because nothing is burned during the procedure, no toxic gases or air pollutants are produced, according to the Mayo Clinic, which uses the procedure in their anatomy department in Rochester, Minnesota. Check for current availability by state. For example, this option will be available in California in 2020.
Watch your loved ones explode!

Ashes To Ashes… Or To Something Else

  • Cremains from either method can be sent heavenward at a specified place in a biodegradable balloon. The balloon freezes at about 30,000 feet and bursts, releasing the ashes.
  • Cremains can be mixed with gunpowder for fireworks.
  • Bodies donated for medical education benefit physicians, dentists, nurses, and physical therapists. In addition, medical researchers use cadavers to develop surgical procedures. To the best of my knowledge, when the educational possibilities are exhausted, the remains are always cremated.
  • One can chose a facility that recycles heat generated by cremation to generate electricity.
  • Ashes can be launched into space if one has enough money and doesn’t mind contributing to space junk polluting the atmosphere.
Cremation art and jewelry from artists at Sands of Time
  • A portion of the cremains can be heated and pressed to make a diamond, costs varying by size, color, and cut of the stone. 
  • Turn human ashes into a vinyl record for about $3K. AndVinyly will use music or audio of your choice, with or without a photo on the cover.
  • Ashes can be incorporated into handcrafted glass art: jewelry, sun catchers, paperweight, etc., with or without ash showing.
  • Ashes can be stored in an urn or sculpture that looks like the dead person. 
  • Special tattoo techniques will allow a person to embed the ashes of a cremated loved one under their skin.
  • Artists can mix the cremains with paint or graphite to create portraits or murals honoring the deceased.

Buried, But Not Traditionally

  • “Burial” above ground is called immurement. For example, in New Orleans the high water level precludes ground burial; bodies are entombed above ground. But immurement occurs across the country in mausoleums.
  • Burial on private land is legal, but check local zoning laws. A funeral director is usually required to oversee the burial. If the person died of a contagious disease, embalming may be required.
  • “Green” or natural burial means the un-embalmed body is interred in biodegradable coffins or shrouds. There are no headstones, crypts, or even landscaping. Unlike a traditional burial, there are no plastic cushions, metal coffin parts, or embalming chemicals. Many green cemeteries even require metal tooth fillings, screws or plates on bones, pacemakers, etc. to be removed from the body.
  • Un-embalmed bodies can be buried in a suit made from mushrooms and other biodegradable organisms, allowed the corpse to become compost, with zero waste. You can get the suit or the shroud for $1500 or so and be buried in a biodegradable coffin or no container at all.
  • The remains of a cremated body (traditional or water cremation) might put into a biodegradable urn that is then buried with a tree seedling: dig a hole in a sunny place, fill with soil, wood chips, and the seedling. If you use Living Urn’s BioUrn, the urn comes with a proprietary growth agent and the seedling of your choice. Compatible trees include olive, birch, cherry, eucalyptus, and oak.
  • Promession—coming soon? Patented by a Swedish company and touted as an “ecological funeral,” it involves freezing the body with liquid nitrogen, vibrating it into small particles, freeze drying the particles, separating any metals, and placing the dry powder remains in a biodegradable casket in top soil.

Not Buried At All

  • Bodies donated to a body farm (aka outdoor forensic anthropology lab) for research purposes are sometimes not buried at all, but left to decompose naturally above ground. When they are buried, it’s likely to be atypical: for example, wrapped in plastic. The results of their studies help law enforcement agencies determine time and manner of death. They are also used to train cadaver dogs and search and rescue teams. There were seven body farms in the U.S. as of 2017.
  • Plastination is a process by which the body’s water and fat are replaced by plastics, which results in total preservation (i.e., the body doesn’t decay). Such bodies are often used in medical education, much as described above. Recently, hoards of people viewed the exhibit BodyWorlds.
  • Having the body cryonically frozen includes the possibility that, when medical science advances enough, the person can be thawed and revived.
  • Sky burials let animals eat the body. Dead bodies are placed on a mountain top to be eaten by scavenging animals or to decompose naturally. Traditionally practiced by some Native American groups using wooden scaffolding or tree limbs, it is currently common in parts of China, Tibet, Nepal, and parts of Northern India. Vajrayana Buddhism follow this practice because adherents believe the body has no use after death and might as well feed animals.
  • Composting a human body involves putting the body in a mix of wood chips, allowing thermophile microbes to decompose the flash and parts of the bones. At the time of this writing, in the U.S. it is legal only in Washington State.
Talk in class, and he may open the closet door.
  • Taxidermy is chosen by a few people: for example, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who had his dead body stuffed. His head, however, was mangled in a botched attempt at New Guinea mummification techniques and is now stored separately from the body. In accordance with his will, Bentham’s stuffed body (with a wax head) was posed and kept in a closet at University College of London.

Historic Means Of Disposal

Roman Catacombs
  • Mummification
  • Dismemberment, in which the body is divided. Historically, this was a form of execution, but sometimes body parts were separated and disposed of individually.
    • Catholic saints were occasionally dismembered so that multiple holy sites could store a piece of the saint’s body, usually in finely crafted reliquaries.
    • Members of the Habsburg royal family were entombed in the Capuchin Crypt with hearts and heads often stored separately.
    • Several ancient catacombs, including those under Paris and Rome, separated skeletons after death and stored bones by type.
  • Mass graves resulting from war, genocide, or natural disasters.
  • Plague pits to try to stop the spread of disease.

Be Aware Of Restrictions

Jewish funeral law requires that every corpse be buried.
  • Various religions and cultures have funeral rites that govern the disposal of a body. For example, some require that all parts of a body are buried together. Among other things, members of these groups cannot be organ donors.
  • Many jurisdictions have laws regulating the disposal of human bodies. Although it may be legal to bury a deceased family member, the law may restrict the locations in which they can be buried. In some cases, burials are limited to property controlled by specific, licensed institutions.
  • In many places, failure to properly dispose of a body is a crime.
  • In some places, it is a crime to fail to report a death and to fail to report the disposal of the body.

Bottom Line for Writers: Before you kill off a character, consider how you’ll get rid of the body. When I started this blog post, I envisioned a few headings, each with a few bullets below. But it just grew! I hope it held your personal interest and/or generated some plot ideas!

Coming Next Week: How to get rid of a body illegally!