Can you please submit proper attribution to your assertion that there are cultures for which eating the cooked flesh of their dead is a ritual? While being vague in this case is actually better than saying "In Africa, they eat their dead," it's still slightly irresponsible to claim that this ritual is currently practiced by certain cultures without further attribution.

I'll admit, I'm curious and provoked, which is what that line in the article aimed to do to the reader. Now I want to make sure it's true.

After I read "Stiff", I realized there is a great need for medical students and researchers to have human bodies, so I signed up to have mine donated to UCSF (the nearest medical school). If you are within 100 miles, they will pick you up free of charge, and will cremate your remains after use (without anyone getting them back). My family is not funeral-oriented, though we've had a few memorials that were little more than gatherings with family and friends.

I think that funerals, as generally conducted in the United States, are incredibly wasteful and entirely unnecessary. Should my family pay $10k for me to embalmed and have my face painted up so I look as "natural" as possible? Sorry, but I've never worn blush nor eyeshadow so that's going to be quite a trick. Also, don't look now but my eyes have been replaced by glass balls, etc.

Also, instead of sending $100 flower sprays, send the money to my family. They'll need all the money they can get to pay the guy for stuffing me and preparing my grave to hold a preserved corpse for decades.

Dust you are and dust you shall return... or not.

I think people who pay for elaborate funerals have bought a bill of goods. I think many people do it because they view it as a sign of respect to the dearly departed. Not sure how though. For one, if you wanted to show respect to someone, it helps that they are alive when you do it. For another, unless that person's mission in life was to waste money, I don't see how you doing so honors them.

Give your respect, and you flowers, to the living.

After I'm dead, please don't dress me up in a suit and slap makeup on me then let everyone walk by and have a look. Bury me simply or burn the body; it really doesn't matter to me at that point and it shouldn't to you. I'm gone.

While it's not cheap, or DIY, there is a company in the Chicagoland area that manufactures diamonds from carbon. You can use creamated remains or hair (from the living).

It doesn't take a lot, so one could satisfy the last request of an individual to be scattered in a special place and also generate some lasting memorial items for immediate family, etc.

http://www.lifegem.com/index.aspx?BannerType=GoogleText&BannerMessage=ce...

There seems to be a growing interest in alternative uses of cremated remains with artists and artisans using the material in glass blowing, painting, and even tattoing.

One artist mounted a show (not using the real thing) wherein she showcased ceramic orbs, hung by thin twine in an abstract garden setting in a gallery. Conceptually, the orbs would contain creamated remains, be hung outdoors in a real garden setting and act as a decorative knetic element in the landscape until the weathering finally wears out the twine, and it falls to the ground, breaking open and allowing the remains to settle into the earth.

Also, NPR did a series on the end of life which included this program on the increasing interest in DIY.

http://www.npr.org/programs/death/971208.death.html

Arvin: I'm not the author, but there are several cultures that practice endocannibalism (eating dead members of one's family/group). One of the most notorious previously endocannibalistic tribes were the Fore of Papua New Guinea---kuru, a prion disease, resulted from eating the brain and nervous tissue of the dead. Luckily in that case, the practice stopped and the disease was eradicated. Google kuru or endocannibalism for more info.

I'm with the rest of you on this. There are several religious groups in the US (Muslims, for example) who practice simple funerals as part of their faith---family or community members prepare the body, etc; I think they have the right idea. Actually, I'd prefer a simple shroud over an unnecessary box, if regulations permit.

My father recently passed and we cut down the costs as much as we could while still staying pretty traditional.

He was cremated and we got permission to bury him in the box the hospital delivered the remains in. You can't do this in every cemetary so make sure you check first. Urn costs were crazy.

We also had a memorial instead of a flat out funeral. We did our own photo DVD that the home ran during that time...they wanted $150 to do it for us and we knew we could do it ourselves - plus we didn't hand over priceless photos to strangers.

We did not have a minister or preacher at either event. My mother asked my husband to say a few words at both. Luckily he did rather well for being put on the spot.

I think we were able to keep the costs below 4K...maybe it was even under 3k...its kind of fuzzy at the moment.

When my husband died two years ago, I had him cremated and the ashes shared among family members. No public funeral -- we had a family get-together to remember him instead. Total cost: $2500 including death certificates. None of us -- including my husband -- could come up with any reason to do otherwise.

Costco sells coffins and urns as a way to provide value to customers. Not all funeral directors accept them, but you can get one. They always have them at the online store.

The Neptune Society is an organization which provides simple cremation and no funeral service. It is in 10 states, mainly out west, but also Florida, Illinois and Missouri.

I highly recommend the book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" by Mary Roach, as previously mentioned. It discusses a lot of options such as composting and going to the criminal decomposition lab. You just have to read it -- it is entertaining.

Paul,

In India, Hindu's do cremations, as burning their loved ones after they die, which is different compared to other thing you mentioned. Parsi's leave their loved one dead bodies in special location where vultures can eat. every culture have own things, who are we to judge?.

BTW cremations are done in western countries such as USA and is much cheaper compare to burial services hence the interest in it by more people now.

Can we be civil about all other cultures, specially when one does not understand it fully.

I keep telling my husband I want a simple pine box, a no-frills memorial service (preferably at the house), and either cremate me and stick my ashes under a fruit tree in the back yard overlooking the salt marsh (and maybe a park bench so the kids can hang out with me from time to time). He's a bit taken back by it, but really, I mean it. Who else is going to come to my funeral? Our friends won't mind coming to the house, and since we're not overly religious a few simple words from anybody moved to do so will suffice. The only extravagance I'd like is to have a bagpiper play MacCrimmon's Lament when they stick my ashes under the new fruit tree (hey ... I'm Scottish).

There's a website, Simple Pine Box, where you can order a simple pine casket (they even have do-it-yourself kits).

Be aware just because you leave your body to science doesn't mean that science will take it. Read the fine print. If they have enough bodies at the moment or you died from a certain disease or accident or even if your body is just really old, these places can say "no, we do not want you". Which leaves your family scrambling to pay for services they thought were already taken care of.

Though rules vary state by state, embalming in the state of California is not required if you are being cremated. You can get a cremation (that includes a death certificate, an urn or have the remains scattered at sea, and all taxes etc) in the San Francisco Bay Area for around $900.