The Hot and New Trends in Burial Alternatives

If I were to ask you how you would like your body to be disposed of when you pass, you would probably say that you would like to be cremated, or perhaps buried in a cemetery.  Are there any other methods?  Now, what if I told you that you could have your cremated ashes shot into space and even land on the moon?  Crazy, right?  Not according to this article on http://www.livescience.com, that talks about eight different new ways people can be buried (or not).

Link to the mentioned article is here:
http://www.livescience.com/15980-death-8-burial-alternatives.html (there are also great links to other articles on strange burial practices).

Stephanie Pappas from Live Science highlights in her article "After Death: Eight Burial Alternatives That are Going Mainstream" the eight trends of burial practices today.  The first one (the most popular) is the new environmental take on cremation, called resomation.  It essentially involves liquifying the body via "heated water and potassium hydroxide" (Pappas, 2011).  Bone is then left behind and crushed down and given to the loved ones just like cremated ashes.  Okay... so it is definitely interesting and environmentally friendly, but liquify?

 Maybe the next one is more your speed: natural burial.  This is much closer to the traditional notion of burial, but in a much more environmentally conscious way.  Instead of chemicals being used to preserve the body, it is wrapped in a shroud and put into the earth.  Just that simple.  In this instance, one gains the feeling of giving back to the earth.  In his blog "Grave Matters" Mark Harris gives a detailed account of this practice and why it is on the rise in popularity.  Here is the link: http://grave-matters.blogspot.ca/2010/09/green-burials-take-deep-root-in.html.

 Eternal reefs are another idea, if you want to have your bones become a part of a reef and its corresponding sea life.

Cryonics is the next practice, for those of you who have watched too many sci-fi movies!  Essentially, one is frozen in the hopes of being awoken in the future with the aid of new medical science.  It may be worthwhile, but it will cost you a pretty penny:  $200 000 for your whole body to be frozen and stored, and for those of you who are cutting back a little bit financially, you can have your head frozen and stored for a mere $80 000.

As mentioned above, space burial is the next method on the list, followed by mummification.  Coming from someone who grew up pouring over books about the ancient Egyptians, this sounds extremely fascinating!  This practice is somewhat like cryonics, however, since many have planned to utilize this option with the faith that their DNA will be cloned in the future.
 Plastination is next, and no, this does not include turning into Barbie or Ken.  This method was first introduced by Gunther von Hagens, who has created a form of art out of bodies that have been almost perfectly preserved.  You may know his work from Body Worlds.  Here is a link to how they actually do plastination: http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/plastination/method_plastination.html.

Lastly, there is promession, which involves freeze drying the body, after which it is shaken and broken up.  The fragments left behind can then be buried, but it is suggested that they be buried in a shallow grave so that they are quickly become a part of the dirt and earth. 

All of these methods are very interesting, but I think that it is important to note the individual and environmental undertones incorporated in all of them.  It seems as if people are becoming more concerned about their body's affect on the Earth, rather than leaving a memory with their family members or loved ones.  I think that this is especially important when considering our "North American" society, which is definitely reflected in our burial practices, or lack thereof.  To end, I would like to include this video about cryonics.  A a caution, though, it is extremely graphic and shows the surgical procedure.  It raises a lot of valid questions though, including: is this natural?  Is this ethical?  Is this considered a belief in the afterlife?  I would love to hear what you think and how this relates back to the culture we live in today.

Here is the video (Again, Caution, this is very graphic and can be disturbing):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuLjw8Arm88