For Omar
I like the way you relate the high cost of funerals in this country to our economic system of capitalism.. You don’t blame the funeral directors who are just acting on
the “profit motive” which is everybody’s motive in this country unless they work for a nonprofit organization. Spending so much money on funerals is a great example of “normal is weird” because it makes no sense to spend more than you can afford honoring
dead people who should feel better about your using the money for their grandchildren’s education (as an example) and would probably would not want to be harming the environment if they knew they were doing that. Even if they did want a big send off, they will never know what you did, and you can always feel good about the fact
that you made them be a part of doing things a better way. As you said, people are easy victims when they are in mourning. There needs to be a cheaper and better alternative
to embalming, wakes, and burials in coffins and vaults that people know about and that
is available where they live. I really liked what you wrote.
For Ben
I think you did a great job showing that when it comes to making decisions about what to do with dead bodies, there are complications with all the options. Signing an organ donor card sounds like a great thing to do, but if you only want your organs used to save someone else’s life, you have to find out more about who is getting your organs. Your report makes me wonder about what control a person can have over what happens to his or her organs after signing the organ donor form. I wonder if you can specify a certain hospital or transplant doctor to get your organs. This could be a lot of work. I leave my heart to__________, my liver to _______________, and my eyes to ________________.
Stiff makes the case that parts are needed for research too, and when I saw the BODIES exhibit at South Street Seaport, I understood how helpful once live bodies can be for
teaching and learning. It’s not as though your name is attached to them. And if your family gets a free burial out of it, it’s worth considering.
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From AbdulM
Your blog seemed to be about this idea that all humans are going to end up rotting no matter what so why don't we stop being selfish and give back to the earth in a "greener" way. Instead of making the decomposition process longer than it should be why don't we just get it over with and give back, even though this may be hard for some of us Americans.
One aspect of your post that I particularly valued was that you provided five alternative to a a typical burial(slow burial). This is more than I learned in my care of the dead unit book. I guess I should have just waited for you to post this amazing blog and just not have read the book. You took the time out to research and not only state but you explained each alternative which is what I greatly appreciated.
Your project matter to me because these are alternatives to our dominant social practice which as we found out in all of the units is more dominant than we would like. These alternatives all have their pro-s and cons,but it seems as though they all outweigh the dominant social practice. I'm not sure if our dominant social practice will change though it appears as though cremation is next on the list to take over which would send us more in the direction of Japan as far as care of the dead is concered. When you think about that isn't to bad since America doesn't seem to know what there doing with issues like oh I don't know food, illness and dying, birth, and care of the dead. Overall great job best work in the class( as hard as that is to admit to myself) I expect nothing more from Mr. Class of 2015 Cornell.
From Omar
You do a very good job of stating the current situation and evaluating the faults. The alternatives you provide are very insightful not only on a very literal level but they say a lot about our society. There are other reasonable option out there for us yet we hold our selves too basically only two. We are so influenced by tradition thee is no progression. I also really like your last paragraph where you talk about in a bigger picture kind of way. The entire post was strong you stated, analyzed, and critiqued the situation. The alternatives were clear your progressive view on care of the dead was also made very clear. Overall, great job
From Dmitry
Great idea picking Kirk Nowitski and Kevin Garnett to tell us about burial options and recommend the cheapest one even though they could afford a Tutankamen-type tomb. I thought this was a really good summary of all the ways to dispose of our bodies. You should get this flyer printed.
From Mom
I did not know anything about the process of resomation or of promession and found it really interesting that there are better alternatives to cremation for the environment. You make a convincing case for a green burial, but since this has to happen right away and the ground could be frozen, that promession process sounds like the best alternative. Having the basketball players make the case for a better burial for the envionment was a really good idea. Someone should pick up on it! Maybe you should propose it.
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