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Cremation v Burial

Dual

Dual

RIP Karl 1991-2014
My parents are going to be cremated, which means that I'll inherit a few plots in the Tacoma cemetery next to a few generations of my father's family. The idea of being turned to ash and shoved in a jar doesn't particularly appeal to me, but neither does being eaten by maggots as my corpse rots. Flesh is but flesh, of course, and my agent will be long gone, so it doesn't really matter either way. Perhaps in my will I'll mandate mummification and burial in an airtight coffin. That might work... although I'd risk being dug up in a few hundred years by anthropologists from the University of Lunar New China. I suppose that's a risk I'll just have to take. Oh, I know! There'll be booby traps too!
 
I've considered letting myself be sealed in concrete, if only because I want to know what happens with the corpse when sealed from any outer influences like that, and knowing the bureaucracy in my country, I am certain the officials will have to evaluate that before they allow that.
 
What do they eventually do with a body that's donated to science/medical research? Do you have to dictate those terms in the will?

If they cremate me after they're done with their ghastly explorations, fine --I just don't want my relatives/spouse recieving a bag of parts, or getting told "Oh, we just threw him in the garbage."

I really don't like the idea of festering in a box 'til whenever. Incinerate me or drop my fat dead ass off the continental shelf; give the bottom feeders a treat.

EDIT -oh oh oh.....I wanna be thrown in a VOLCANO!!! :bigass:
 
Dunno how it is in the US, but over here the donor can determine if the body will be used for long-term scientific studies or for dissection by students.
The institute will then cremate the body and have it buried according to the deceased' wishes.
 
If you go for the traditional burial, you're not going to be eaten by maggots, anyways. They pump you full of chemicals and put you in a concrete block. It's just like mummification, except your relatives don't even get cool keepsake jars full of rotten organs afterward.
 
Ah, but that's exactly what I'm not sure of... does being completely cast in concrete result in mummification? How much oxygen permeates through, say, 50 cm of solid concrete? What about fluids? I know there are enough anaerobic bacteria that will prosper in that environment, but what exactly will they do, what changes the body go through?
 
They remove your precious bodily fluids and replace them with things that denature your proteins. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

It might not be real mummification, but you're going to look weird and creepy for at least a few hundred years.
 
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