This is Really Gross: Dissolving Bodies with Lye as a Substitute for Cremation

This post is about how to deal with dead bodies. I think it's interesting, but individual experiences may vary.

"A rival to burial: Dissolving bodies with lye / Mortuary science weighs process; procedure used in medical centers"
msnbc (May 8, 2008)

"CONCORD, N.H. - Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest — dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

"The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed in this country 16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300-degree heat and 60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers."

So far, alkaline hydrolysis is legal in Minnesota and in New Hampshire.

Spiffy.

There's a interesting sentence further into the article: "But because of its environmental advantages, some in the funeral industry say it could someday rival burial and cremation."

I don't see the presumed advantage over cremation. The alkaline hydrolysis process ends with a liquid the color of coffee and the consistency of motor oil. The liquid gets poured down the drain. "In addition to the liquid, the process leaves a dry bone residue similar in appearance and volume to cremated remains. It could be returned to the family in an urn or buried in a cemetery.

Okay. I've got it now.

• Cremation yields an urn-full of solid stuff, and a hundred pounds or so of burned organic stuff that goes into the air.
• Alkaline hydrolysis yields an urn-full of solid stuff, and a coffee-colored motor oil look-alike.

So far, I don't see the environmental advantage.

• Cremation Source - Cremation Services Nationwide
• Creation Equipment, Ltd.

And, a blast from the past: "After You're Dead" (North Coast Journal (April 10, 2008)). This person doesn't like "byproducts of cremation polluting the air, fossil fuels used to burn bodies." His answer: "The epitome of the greening of funeral practices is a casketless burial in a natural cemetery, typically in a semi-wild environment with little landscaping, and without classic headstones or monuments to mark the graves."

It's been done before. This is the sort of burial practice that Shakespeare used as a setting in Hamlet: A person was buried in the churchyard, in an area where nobody had been buried for several years. The next person to die would be buried nearby.

Current burials rotated through the churchyard, fresh graves dug into the site of the oldest burials. The principle is the same as that used in crop rotation.

Personally, I'd prefer the Hamlet gambit to being liquefied and poured down the drain. Odds are that I'll be cremated, though.