Alternate Methods of Disposal of a Body

Death is a step in life we all must go through, however what is done with your remains afterward varies from culture to culture and depends on the individuals fears and wishes in life. Many people find the thought of being buried 6 ft underground in a small casket claustrophobic and even disgusting when they think of what happens to a body once it has been buried. They can imagine themselves down there even though they know they will have hopefully moved on to a better place. For that reason many want and find alternate methods of disposal of their remains. Some donate their bodies to science, yet many choose cremation. Fire or cremation is widespread among many cultures and religions and has been around since sometime around 700 BCE in Athens. A funerary vase was found dating back to circa 750-700 bce and depicted the relatively new practice of the time of cremation. It had a narrative portrayed on it of a deceased body being placed on a funerary bier about to be cremated and we also see the loved ones tearing their hair out in grief over the loss of a loved one.

Today, like back then cremation is not the final disposition of the body but a major step. This process takes about 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of the individual at 1500 degrees F to 2000 degrees F. After cremation other than burial, ones ashes can be placed in an urn and kept in a family home or spread somewhere the deceased loved being ,for example a beach or ocean they loved or the mountains. Of course depending on the place proper permits and authorization is necessary. The cremation process is very interesting. It is actually the process of reducing the human body to bone fragments using high heat and flame. I found out that a casket is not needed for cremation like we often see it depicted on TV shows and the movies. Depending on which state you live in they may require some alternate container made of wood or even cardboard. Other states no container is needed at all. This would save a lot of money and if you think about it would be a waste to have a fancy casket as it would be turned to ash anyway. Embalming which has to be done when someone is being buried without cremation is not needed either and through my research found out that it is against the law if a funeral home tries to tell you that it is needed, so that is one thing to watch out for in finding a reputable funeral home. In many cases the cremation provider will let the family witness the cremation especially when it is part of their religious custom. Today many religions accept cremation accept for Orthodox Jewish, Islamic, Eastern Orthodox and a few Fundamentalist Christian faiths. The Catholic Church accepts cremation as long as it is not chosen for reasons, which are contrary to Christian teachings.

Another Method of disposal, which can be argued as preserving life is Cryogenics. This form of disposal is highly expensive especially when you compare it to cremation. A company by the name of ALCOR is a leader in this technique and has been working with this process since 1972. They believe that if proper procedures are followed immediately after the heart stops, then legal death need not impact the biology of cryonics or its prospects for success. Alcor's ideal cases are those of individuals that are terminally ill not accidental death and where after the person's heart has stopped life support techniques were promptly used to maintain brain viability. Alcor staff will wait on a 24-hour basis on standby when the patient's case gets critical. After an independent nurse or doctor pronounces death the Alcor staff start to perform their procedures. I will go into small detail below.

Stabilization: body is placed in an ice water bath and blood circulation and breathing are artificially restored by an HLR (heart-lung resuscitator) . An iv is then setup and the following drugs are pushed through the system
Free radical inhibitors

• NOS (nitric oxide synthase) inhibitors
• PARP (Poly ADP-ribose polymerase) inhibitors
• Excitotoxicity inhibitors
• Anticoagulants
• Pressors
• pH buffers
• Anesthetic

Transport: A procedure similar to those used in preparing transplant organs is used except done on the whole body. Within minutes, a heat exchanger in the heart-lung machine reduces the patient's temperature to a few degrees above the freezing point of water. Blood is also replaced with an organ preservation solution that is specially designed to support life at low temperature. If the patient is located outside of Arizona, they are packed in ice for air shipment to Alcor's facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Cryoprotective Perfusion: mixture of chemicals developed by mainstream cryobiologists for long-term banking of transplantable organs are placed in body

Cooling: patients are cooled under computer control by fans circulating nitrogen gas at a temperature near -125°C. The goal is to cool all parts of the patient below -124°C (the glass transition temperature) as quickly as possible to avoid any ice formation. This requires approximately three hours, at the end of which the patient will have "vitrified" (reached a stable ice-free state). The patient is then further cooled to -196°C over approximately two weeks.Long-Term Care: stored under liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196°C. The liquid nitrogen is held in vacuum-insulated dewars that require replenishment every few weeks. Liquid nitrogen is used because it is inexpensive and reliable.

Alcor does not come right out and say how much this all costs but likens it to the price of other complex medical procedures that are out there today. They suggest that the patient have life insurance or other financial arrangements in place in advance of needing this procedure.

In either case the method of disposal you chose depends on how you lived your life and what your beliefs are. If you believe in an after life and had a long full life you would probably chose cremation. If you died at a young age of a terminal illness or you feel you have much more to live for, or maybe believe this is the only life we have then you may go the route of cryogenics.

Resources

http://www.cremation.org/faq.html

http://www.alcor.org/

Art History revised second edition by Marilyn Stokstad