Everyday Dying

As described in one of my previous posts , environmentally-friendly funerals are increasingly gaining popularity. Interestingly, not all modern funerals in the western world involve disposing of the body by conventional means, such as cremation or full body burial. A method which has recently gained increased public awareness is promession, i.e. freeze-drying the human remains prior to disposal. The method allows the body to become a nutrient-rich fertiliser, allowing the life cycle to progress naturally. The process essentially involves freezing the dead body, before shaking it to make it fall apart The method is relatively straight-forward, involving 5 key stages: (a video demonstrating the process can be watched here:  https://youtu.be/HpnopgptKHk ) 1. Coffin separation : the body is removed from the coffin and placed in a chamber of the Promator machine. 2. Cryogenic freezing : liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius is used to freeze the body, in effect turning it ...

After coming back home feeling depressed after a friend's wedding, this time I decided to write a more personal post explaining my viewpoint regarding the common events of weddings and funerals, which almost everyone attends at some point during their lifetime. In almost all cultures throughout the world weddings are associated with happiness, while funerals are portrayed as sad events, associated with grief. In my culture a typical wedding would involve the ceremony of a wedding talk where the couple are given their blessing, and signing documents, followed by a party where the guests would dance to music, eat a lot of food and drink alcohol. Meanwhile, at a funeral, the body would be lying in a casket at a hall where a goodbye speech would be given, before being sent off to be buried or cremated. The guests would then go off to a wake, or reception, where food would be provided and people would talk to each other, commemorating the life of the deceased (often crying at the same t...

It is common for individuals and relatives of the deceased to donate dead bodies to science, believing they are contributing to good causes, such as disease research and potential organ donations. Most often there are no questions asked once the donations have been made. However, what should be known, and most often is not publicised, is the fact that donating a body to science is likely to contribute to commercial activities of the company the corpse had been donated to, more than to the interests of actual true science. The reality is that the body-donation industry has loose regulations, and profits often matter more than ensuring the cadavers are actually used for legitimate research. A case has been recently reported of an amateur who purchased human heads from body-donation companies, for several thousand dollars each. He stored the heads in a refrigerator for the purpose of conducting self-taught experiments on them, even though the organisations claimed to only be selling par...

From the viewpoint of an engineer, sustainability via fuel conservation and preserving natural resources are significant matters at the end of life of all machines. So why do human burials tend to be treated so differently?  A single cremation uses as much fuel as a car driving for 4800 miles, and releases polluting chemicals into the atmosphere, including Carbon Dioxide, mercury and dioxin. Typical burials use up plenty of wood, concrete and plastic only for the sake of shielding a body from the surrounding ground, attempting to slow down the natural cycle of decay. Such materials take many years to decay and can leave behind toxic residue. A body drained of blood is typically filled with environmentally harmful chemicals, including formaldehyde and phenol for preservation purposes. The above practices are unlikely to stop any time soon as cultural beliefs prevail over environmental concerns. However, with time, perhaps more eco-friendly methods of corpse disposal will become mo...