What will you do with your body?

[supercorgi]

So for those of us to don't give a damn what happens to our bodies after we're dead -- what are you planning to do? For me, dead is dead and what happens to my body doesn't have any greater meaning. I'm an atheist.

Organ donation if anything's still useful is a must for me. I think of donating my body to science (probably med schools) but I really don't like the idea of medical students doing disgusting pranks with my remains. I could opt for cremation with a regular burial I guess. Recently I ran into the topic of "green burials" where they plant your corpse in a forest somewhere and plant a tree on top of it. I sort of like this idea - I'm going to eventually become worm food anyway - why have a steel coffin and embalming to slow the process. I'd like to think that other living creatures are benefiting from my corpse.

So what are other atheists planning to do with their bodies?

[Piscivore]

Lie there decomposing and let my wife do whatever she decides.

[AWPrime]

Turn it radioactive, nice for graverobbers.

[TobiasTheViking]

already signed up as a doner

[Beady]

Lie there decomposing and let my wife do whatever she decides.

No, the OP meant after you're dead.

[Marquis de Carabas]

I answered once before, and my answer has not changed much...
I shall be cremated, except for my skull, which shall be bronzed and made into an urn for my ashes. The skull will then be placed in the open palm of a lifesize black marble statue of myself in my prime, striking a suitably majestic pose (with an eyepatch) on a 4' granite pedestal inside a crystal mausoleum in a verdant glade amongst 100 acres of virgin forest. A small brazier for incense and a cashbox for donations will be maintained. Some suitable curse for grave robbers will be inscribed, in ASCII code, upon the pedestal. Funkadelic will be pumped in through small, inconspicuously placed, but very loud speakers.

Puss, of course, will have his own statue, out back, overgrown with weeds, and made out of plaster of Paris by a quadriplegic teenager on heroin.

Although I have since decided that, rather than bronzed, my skull shall be platinum-plated.

[Piscivore]

No, the OP meant after you're dead.

I see no reason for a little thing like death to interfere with my daily routine.

[Zep]

Me? Organ donor, remainder to research. They have already done a lot of disgusting pranks to my body in the name of research while I'm alive - so why should I care when I'm dead?

[scimystic]

So for those of us to don't give a damn what happens to our bodies after we're dead -- what are you planning to do? For me, dead is dead and what happens to my body doesn't have any greater meaning. I'm an atheist.

Organ donation if anything's still useful is a must for me. I think of donating my body to science (probably med schools) but I really don't like the idea of medical students doing disgusting pranks with my remains. I could opt for cremation with a regular burial I guess. Recently I ran into the topic of "green burials" where they plant your corpse in a forest somewhere and plant a tree on top of it. I sort of like this idea - I'm going to eventually become worm food anyway - why have a steel coffin and embalming to slow the process. I'd like to think that other living creatures are benefiting from my corpse.

So what are other atheists planning to do with their bodies?



The organ donor option sounds pretty good, but by the time I'm finished with mine I doubt that they will have much mileage left in them.

My favorite suggestion is from an old British radio comedy, called Rawlinsons End. [Any other fans out there?]. I can't fully set up the scene as was done in the play, but can at least ask you to imagine the following being said at a party, by a person not unlike Winston Churchill, and after consumption of at least half a bottle of Scotch: "Personally, when I'm dead you can prop me up in the corridor, shove a length of flex up my back passage, and put a light bulb in my mouth. 'After death', 'aftershave'; I don't hold with any of it!" It may also be noted that the character (Sir Henry) kept a pair of "sickle sharp boar tusks" for defacing copies of The Reader's Digest, and a pack of vicious dogs, primarily for chasing Jehova's Witnesses off his property. Basically, a man after my own heart. :)

Regards to all

Scimystic

[rocketdodger]

So what are other atheists planning to do with their bodies?

Two words: funeral pyre. Lighting up the night sky for miles around.

And in the background will be playing the jedi theme. OMFG I get a lump in my throat just thinking about how friggin cool that will be. It almost makes me want to kill myself just to see it.

[Just Me]

I would like my body to be creamated, made into diamonds from the carbon, placed into pieces of jewelry and given to my 2 daughters. Or 3 daughters should I have another.
Maybe 1 diamond should go to my wife. She'll easily outlive me (I'm a smoker).
That's gonna be a lotta diamonds to make. Better start eating more.:D

[uncy]

I'm thinking donate my organs and useful parts, then just throw my body into the woods for the wolves, I won't be there for it, plus the wolves need love too. As far a wake goes, I want everyone I knew to throw a huge shindig and use my coffin as the open bar.

[Just Me]

I'm thinking donate my organs and useful parts, then just throw my body into the woods for the wolves, I won't be there for it, plus the wolves need love too. As far a wake goes, I want everyone I knew to throw a huge shindig and use my coffin as the open bar.
Could I take the coffin afterwards? I hear they're expensive and I bet I could make a few bucks on ebay w/ it.:)
Does your soul come w/ it?

[Ryokan]

I have no idea, and I don't care. Ground me up and feed me to the pigs for all I care, I'll be dead!

[uncy]

Could I take the coffin afterwards? I hear they're expensive and I bet I could make a few bucks on ebay w/ it.:)
Does your soul come w/ it?

If my family doesn't need the extra cash at the end of the day it's all yours, as far as my soul, I'm not entirely sure I have one, I mean I was born of cesarean section so I may not have one. Plus I’m pretty sure I got drunk one night and sold it to Satan for a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, and I’d probably do it again.

[clarsct]

I want to be shot into the sun. Either that, or on a trajectory to leave the solar system.

Wake is a different story. There ought to be a bar..and a fireplace....


Hell, I want to be there when they read my will.....(evil grin)

[Just Me]

Plus I’m pretty sure I got drunk one night and sold it to Satan for a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos, and I’d probably do it again.

I understand. Was it verbal or written out?
Plus you could always be Saved, then sign it over to me. I'll give you some funions. I'm serious.

[uncy]

I understand. Was it verbal or written out?
Plus you could always be Saved, then sign it over to me. I'll give you some funions. I'm serious.

Im not sure, but I do remember having a rather large stab wound on my left arm, so I either signed in blood, shades of Dr. Faustus, or I was accidentaly stabed. Though I'm now considering your offer, I mean, Funions are awsome...

[3point14]

I really don't care. Except I don't want to be buried and use up space that could be used by living people who'd actually find it useful. And I don't think I want to be burned, just because it would probably polute, create greenhouse gasses and use up fuel.

I did read once about a 'Sky burial' (I think) where they chop your corpse up into pieces and leave it on a mountain for the birds - I think I'd like that.

[ond_magiker]

I'd like to be resurrected as a zombie, then start following John Edwards around telling him various letter. "R", I'd say. "Sounds like R. Or a G". Occasionally I'd point to my chest.

Organ donation is an option.

[David Swidler]

You wanna donate an organ? I know a moving company that specializes in just that sort of-

Oh. That Kind of organ.

Never mind.

[Dog Boots]

I would "gladly" (er?) donate organs, but I haven't gotten around to signing up, yet - which is actually something I really should do.

But I feel that organ donation should be the default, and people would have to declare specifically if they did not want that to happen...

[Rufo]

I'll leave it for my surviving relatives to decide. There must be some of them who has an opinion on it, and if they feel good by having some kind of farewell ritual, religious or not, it seems fair to let them decide. As long as it's not too degrading to my memory.

I did read once about a 'Sky burial' (I think) where they chop your corpse up into pieces and leave it on a mountain for the birds - I think I'd like that.
My father use to say he wants to have such a burial. I hope he's joking - otherwise I dread the day I'll have to try getting permission for such a ritual... :rolleyes:

[arthwollipot]

I'd like to be entombed, but that's expensive.

I have a mental picture of an iron gate with a rusty padlock, half-hidden in the undergrowth, leading to a rock cavern with me laid out on a dusty marble slab with my sword.

[Jocky]

for those of us to don't give a damn what happens to our bodies after we're dead ... [snip] ... but I really don't like the idea of medical students doing disgusting pranks with my remains.

Ah, so you do give a damn really, don't you? You wouldn't have written the OP if you didn't, come to that.

The thing that puts me off research is not the medical students, but the thought that my relatives would be deprived of a body disposal process (burial, cremation, whatever). Having been through a bereavement recently, I found that disposing of the body is a powerful symbol of closure. Bereaved people need emotional closure to move on, and the needs of the living are more important than the vanity of the dead.

Organ donation, yes. But the rest of my carcass can be there for my family to destroy in whatever manner feels useful to them at the time. And then they can go off and do something less boring instead.

[CapoKent]

Organ donor. Family will decide the rest.

Knowing how my brothers are, I will probably wind up in stuffed into a styrofoam container (probably from McDonald's or some fast food chain) and thrown off a cliff somewhere.

[Ryokan]

But I feel that organ donation should be the default, and people would have to declare specifically if they did not want that to happen...

I'm a politician, and actually suggested this. Sadly, the suggestion was never even accepted in my own party, so was never turned over to the parliament.

I have no idea why, to me it sounds rational.

[kedo1981]

Donated it to the Wrigth State School of Med

[Belz...]

So what are other atheists planning to do with their bodies?

Compost.

[Belz...]

I'm a politician, and actually suggested this. Sadly, the suggestion was never even accepted in my own party, so was never turned over to the parliament.

I have no idea why, to me it sounds rational.

Personally, I'd make it obligatory. But that's the dictator in me, speaking.

[Dogdoctor]

They can take whatever they want (organs or whole body) and cremate the rest.

[thaiboxerken]

I'm going to have my body bronzed as an example of perfection of human form.

[Upchurch]

I answered once before, and my answer has not changed much...


Although I have since decided that, rather than bronzed, my skull shall be platinum-plated.
I'll have what he's having, thank you.

[Just Me]

Organ donor. Family will decide the rest.

Knowing how my brothers are, I will probably wind up in stuffed into a styrofoam container (probably from McDonald's or some fast food chain) and thrown off a cliff somewhere.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2004-11-11/news/news.html
I live in a suburb of Phoenix and was able to read the article the day it came out. I didn't know what to think.:eye-poppi

[chulbert]

Although I have since decided that, rather than bronzed, my skull shall be platinum-plated. Really? I think the contrast of bronze on black would be more striking.

[Pauliesonne]

I want my body to be wrapped in a white cotton blanket and buried under a large oak tree all to the music of Bob Dylan.

[andyandy]

i'm gonna auction all my vital organs on ebay....and leave all the money to my family.....

this only really works with a terminal illness that u can plan for.....but i reckon you could do all the compatibility tests for kidneys, liver, heart, bone marrow....post em up.....bidding finishes when u pop it....all the organs are removed, preserved and posted as soon as the paypal clears.....
everyone's a winner :D

[chance]

Organ donor.
But what I secretly wish for is to be able, just before I die, hide a “jack in the box” in my stomach cavity, so that when the medical student opens me up, out it pops (alien like) with accompanying “BOO” sound track. Regrettably it’s not my idea, I saw it in a Mad magazine several life times ago. :)

[Piscivore]

Really? I think the contrast of bronze on black would be more striking.

Platinum on black is Metal.

[Just Me]

i'm gonna auction all my vital organs on ebay....and leave all the money to my family.....

this only really works with a terminal illness that u can plan for.....but i reckon you could do all the compatibility tests for kidneys, liver, heart, bone marrow....post em up.....bidding finishes when u pop it....all the organs are removed, preserved and posted as soon as the paypal clears.....
everyone's a winner :D
Don't count on it. Transplants need to be pretty quickly. Shipping takes forever.:D

[uncy]

Don't count on it. Transplants need to be pretty quickly. Shipping takes forever.:D
Shhhhhhhhhh...they don't know that >.>
<.<

[Achán hiNidráne]

From Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Crow: So, this is what it's like to be dead.
Joel: Well, roughly. This is what it's like to be in a casket.
Tom: So, uh, why are we doing this?
Joel: Well, aren't you curious?
Crow: About being dead? We're robots, Joel! We're not the ones who have to worry about it....uh....you understand my point? (Tom chuckles.)
Joel: Oh, yeah? Well, at least *I* have a soul, okay?
Tom: (dismissively): Yeah, sure you do. Anyway, even though I'm not gonna die, I sure could see having a snappy funeral.
Crow: Not like the one in the movie, though. What a drag!
Tom: No. At my funeral, I'd hope my friends would toss me up and down in a blanket like the Eskimos do, you know? Really go for some height!
Crow: Ooh....How about a beach funeral? You know? Pony keg....bonfire....couples slipping off to the woods to neck.... Prop me up so I can surf!
Joel: Me, I'd go the dignity route. You know: a variety of ethnic foods, uh, maybe a saxophone quartet....
Tom: Ah, dignity schmignity, Joel--I want elephants, lots of them! And circus ladies as my pallbearers. (Lascivious.) And I want 'em enthusiastic and wearing those little frilly skirts, those little tutus....heh heh heh....
Joel: Uh, you know, Tom, cost COULD be a consideration....
Crow: Oh, nonsense, Joel! I'll lie in state for several days at the Corn Palace, while "Hooked On A Feeling" is sung by a choir of castrati.
Tom: You know, there's always the educational route. A real hands-on kind of funeral--details of my embalming written up and distributed....
Joel: It IS fun to think about, isn't it?
Tom: Sure is. So, uh, when you humans die, um--that's it, right? You're dead forever?
Joel: Yeah.
Crow: Well, isn't that like throwing the baby out with the bath water, Joel?
Tom: Yeah. Why don't you just NOT DIE, Joel?
Joel: Well, everybody dies.
Crow: (sarcastically): Oh, and if everybody ran off a cliff you'd do that, too.
Joel: Wh--uh--that's not the way it works....Besides, we've got commercial sign.
Tom: Well, it's just WEIRD, that's all. Maybe it's us.
Crow: Joel, is there any way I could be mummified and placed next to Stalin?
Joel: (dismissively): Sure, honey.
Crow: Well, that's what I want. Mummified and placed next to Stalin.

[Hamradioguy]

I am working on a new invention that will revolutionize how we deal with the body after death. If it works I'll become famous and after I die I shall be mist.

[Rob Lister]

I don't give a damn.

Just don't take my liver and give it to anyone else.

that's my parting gesture of compassion.

[veggie doll]

I've already agreed to donate any of my organs and/or tissue that anyone may find useful.

In my waking life I find cemeteries romantic and beautiful but obviously none of that will matter once I'm dead. So to avoid taking up extra space, I'll probably wish to have my remains cremated.

[supercorgi]

Two words: funeral pyre. Lighting up the night sky for miles around.

And in the background will be playing the jedi theme. OMFG I get a lump in my throat just thinking about how friggin cool that will be. It almost makes me want to kill myself just to see it.

Oh I hadn't thought of that. I would sort of like a viking funeral. Put me in a boat, put my worldly goods in with me, light me up and push the boat out into the water. And play some bombastic Wagner in the background. That would be so cool! :D

[chance]

Disclaimer to the future host to my internal organs:


I, being of sound-ish mind and questionable body, do not imply any warrantee of said body parts.

The host shall make no claim of expectation that my kidney will filter nor liver function to any expected norm.

Any latent memories experienced are a product of your own maladjusted psyche and any claim to the contrary will be pursued in the courts as soon as I can find an channeller willing to represent my departed self.

Note to self - target Interesting Ian out of shear bloody mindedness.

[Hamradioguy]

Oh I hadn't thought of that. I would sort of like a viking funeral. Put me in a boat, put my worldly goods in with me, light me up and push the boat out into the water. And play some bombastic Wagner in the background. That would be so cool! :D

Ha, the Mass Environmental Agency would certainly have something to say about that- violation of clean air and littering laws, water pollution, noise pollution. No viking funeral for you.

[Ducky]

well since I can't donate organs (that whole cancer thing) I have decided that my spine is to be removed, cleaned, and donated to the JREF. (ETA: implants and all.)

The rest of me is to be creamated, and the ashes snuck into containers of Folger's Crystals at the packaging plant.

Think about that next time you brew up a nice cup...


"We've secretly replaced Kevin Trudeau's normal coffee with the ashes of a cancer patient. Let's see if he notices the difference..."

[supercorgi]

Ha, the Mass Environmental Agency would certainly have something to say about that- violation of clean air and littering laws, water pollution, noise pollution. No viking funeral for you.
Boy, you sure know how to take all the fun out of death! You're such a killjoy. :cry1

[ImaginalDisc]

I'll leave it for my surviving relatives to decide. There must be some of them who has an opinion on it, and if they feel good by having some kind of farewell ritual, religious or not, it seems fair to let them decide. As long as it's not too degrading to my memory.


You might want to put your wishes into writing. When my atheist grandfather died, his widow, my grandmother, put a cross in his coffin, and had a priest speak at the funeral. I was waiting for him to spring to life and slap that clergyman silly, but alas, he was dead. It was tremendously disrespectful to my grandfather, but no one else in my family thought that there was any problem with inflicting religion on a dead atheist.

[This Guy]

If it makes anyone else feel better, they can have whatever type service they want.

They can take whatever they want, that's left, and usable.

After that, they can feed what's left to the dogs for all I care. Just don't blame me if the dogs get sick ;)

[Tricky]

Soylent green.

(Or cat food, if they have some sort of quality standards for human food)

[blutoski]

My favorite suggestion is from an old British radio comedy, called Rawlinsons End.

Of course, there's always the Python approach.

[nescafe]

Of course, there's always the Python approach.

No dumping in the Thames for me. I think I would go well with a white wine sauce.

[arthwollipot]

"I think we've got an eater!"

[Dicon]

I'm planning to wander the streets of the city and feast on the flesh of the living.

Seems only fair.

[Ben Best]

I was talking with my friend recently about the concept of cryonic preservation after death. (As done by Alcor and others). We both agreed that the chances of it ever working as planned [IE: A person being revived years later] are extremely low.

The problems are obvious. First, the process causes cellular and molecular damage. Also, there are the problems of reanimating dead tissues. Of course. Of course, there is also a great deal of uncertanty as to whether events of the future could interupt your preservation and whether future generations would even want to revive you.

However, there is one logical argument for preservation which I think holds some water: The chances of coming back may be very very slim, but the chances of coming back if you are burried/cremated are zero. And while cryonics may be a less than perfect means of perservation, it's currently about the best we got.

Personally....I'd go for it, if I had a some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket...or rather..a lot of extra cash. So as it stands...I'm not signed up for it.

(OH btw: There's no spell check on this computer. Yeah...I know I can't spell. Sorry)

Check-out the discussion in the " What are your opinions on cryonic preservation?" section of "JREF Forum > General Academics > Science, Mathematics, Medicine, and Technology"

[treble_head]

First I'll strip. Nice and slow. Then out comes the lotion and- oh. You mean after I'm dead? That's no fun.

Hmmm... Lessee...ooh! World's largest marionette! I'll be on bungie cords and controlled by a dozen stout european circus folk. It'll be like the Cirque Du Soleil, only morbid, with a fat guy. I'll still be wearing a blue spandex body suit and have orange lipstick and rouge on with a rediculous wig, for european flavor, because, heck! I'm dead, what do I care about modesty anymore.

[supercorgi]

Check-out the discussion in the " What are your opinions on cryonic preservation?" section of "JREF Forum > General Academics > Science, Mathematics, Medicine, and Technology"
At this point, cryonics is a pipe dream. I can think of much better uses for my body -- saving/improving other people's lives, furthering reasearch, teaching, feeding some trees, catfood. All of those useful treatments beat being turned into a corpsicle with very little liklihood of revival.

[rustypouch]

I want my flesh slow cooked, Texas BBQ style, then pulled and served on buns at the wake. Then whoever is reading the eulogy can say 'He might be gone, but there is still a piece of him in all of us.'

[advancedatheist]

I plan to get cryonically suspended. The practice of destroying failing human bodies instead of trying to get them to future trauma centers (via "medical time travel (http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/medicaltimetravel.htm)") will sound like the primitive rituals of savage tribes (e.g., female genital mutilation) in a few decades.

[Tricky]

I want my flesh slow cooked, Texas BBQ style, then pulled and served on buns at the wake. Then whoever is reading the eulogy can say 'He might be gone, but there is still a piece of him in all of us.'
Oh no. Don't tell me this is going to turn into another recipe thread!

BTW. Texas barbecue is crap.

[advancedatheist]

At this point, cryonics is a pipe dream. I can think of much better uses for my body -- saving/improving other people's lives, furthering reasearch, teaching, feeding some trees, catfood. All of those useful treatments beat being turned into a corpsicle with very little liklihood of revival.

This illustrates the weakness of the purely "skeptical" form of cognition, vesus the sort inclined towards inventive problem solving. When X has poor prospects of working, the inventor, like the skeptic, says, "X doesn't/won't/can't work." But then the inventor goes a few extra steps and starts to ask, "Well, how could you get X to work, or how could you accomplish the goal implicit in X through other means that might work?"

[JollyRoger]

I want an Irish wake and after the corpse can go to a medical school for research and educational material. and it they use my corpse in a prank it had better be a good one.

[Meffy]

Of course, there's always the Python approach.
Crackle crackle crackle for me, then my calcium and phosphorus and potassium can be dumped in any appropriate place. I won't need it any longer.