Cremation

joyfulthanks · Jan 28, 2009

Apparently, bodies don't just neatly and hygenically turn into ash from the heat, either. I've heard that there is some other rather icky stuff involved in the whole process. I don't think the industry wants people to know the details of that kind of stuff. :o

LutheranChick · Jan 28, 2009

PreachersWife2004 said:
My aunt wanted to be cremated but my grandparents, for their own sake, couldn't do it.

Since I will be dead, I really don't care what they do with my body. Well, to a point...I mean, I wouldn't want a necrophiliac getting ahold of it or anything. But I have down that I wish to donate my body to Christian scientists and I hope that maybe my organs can help someone.

In terms of cremation, I am neither here nor there on it, but it's not something I personally want to do. Matt wanted to until he heard that it's as costly as a regular burial. He wants to be buried cheaply. He tells me to just get a pine box and bury him on the side of the road.

I have a q for you , PW- do you have a particular institution specified in your will (Like a Lutheran college or something like that) for where you want your body donated to?

Jim47 · Jan 28, 2009

Ohh, neat topic

joyfulthanks said:
So am I crazy to think about writing something about this to my relatives? We're talking close relatives like parents and siblings here.

Do you think I could do it graciously, or would I come across as self-righteous?

As you can already see, there are a wide range of opinions on this. It was somthing that came up in my life when my Dad past away 9 years ago, although he was buried cremation came up in discussion with my Pastor, maybe from a bible class is my guess.

There's really nothing wrong with cremation, except that some people bnelieve they may escape judgement by having their bodies reduced to ashes, but we all know that God can bring us back no matter whether we've been eaten by fish or wild animals or burned to a pulp. The only time sin comes into play is that ine people believing they are fooling God.

As for a letter, I would shy away from that.

PreachersWife2004 said:
In terms of cremation, I am neither here nor there on it, but it's not something I personally want to do. Matt wanted to until he heard that it's as costly as a regular burial. He wants to be buried cheaply. He tells me to just get a pine box and bury him on the side of the road.

I've told my wife and kids for years to just take up in the north woods of Michigan and let the coyotes eat me, at least I would leave by serving some good that way

MarkRohfrietsch · Jan 28, 2009

RadMan said:
Since I weigh around 290 lbs I've been told that instead of burning up within hours it would probably take days to consume all my fat Like an oil spill on fire.

Na, you'd burn better! With the really obese the thermostat will actually turn the gas down or off so it does not over heat the retort. You just smoke a lot more! Also, use a good hardwood casket, they stink less than the particle board cheepies.

Jim47 · Jan 28, 2009

MarkRohfrietsch said:
Also, use a good hardwood casket, they stink less than the particle board cheepies.

Ewww, did we really need to know that?

QuiltAngel · Jan 28, 2009

Ugh, too many nasty visuals going in this thread.

PreachersWife2004 · Jan 28, 2009

LutheranChick said:
I have a q for you , PW- do you have a particular institution specified in your will (Like a Lutheran college or something like that) for where you want your body donated to?

Right now it would be dealt with through Martin Luther College - whether they actually ended up with it would have to be determined, but they basically get first rights.

MarkRohfrietsch · Jan 28, 2009

PreachersWife2004 said:
Right now it would be dealt with through Martin Luther College - whether they actually ended up with it would have to be determined, but they basically get first rights.

The donation of ones remains to science is a noble and necessary part of training our health care workers. But it's not always as simple and straight forward.

FYI:

If you have had a lot of surgeries, or have died from certain diseases the institution can reject your remains.

Read the fine print on the donation contract.

Some institutions, when they are done with the remains contact the family to make arrangements for disposition; this includes the financial obligation to the Funeral Home.

Those that do not, incinerate the bits and pieces that are left as "medical waste", then the ashes are disposed of in land fill.

On a lighter note...

Many years ago in the City of Kingston Ontario Canada, the Roman Catholic Bishop died, and was interred in the crypt of the Chapel beside the Cathedral (which he had built). A few years ago the Chapel was found to need some major structural work. After some deliberation it was decided to disinter the Bishop's remains, do the repairs, and then put him back.

When they opened the crypt, there was no Bishop.

No one knows for sure, but they figure he was snatched by medical students from near-by Queen's University for dissection. Body snatching of this sort was a real problem in Kingston at that time (early to mid 1800's). At that time the only source of cadavers were unclaimed dead, indigents and executed criminals.

Queens University is still there, and is one of the top Universities in Canada. It also has the highest admission standards in the Country.

LCC has (I think it still is on the go) a mission in Kingston, and I believe they are using an Anglican Chapel that is part of Queen's.

DaRev · Jan 28, 2009

They captured the Queen's Bishop???

Checkmate!!!

Flipper · Jan 28, 2009

In Louisiana, parts of the state are under sea level so no one can be buried in the ground. They are put into vaults until they naturally cremate (takes one year), then swept to the back of the vault to make room for the next one. There could be lots of people in one vault. That's what I learned in a tour of the St Louis Cemetary in New Orleans.

I'm not going to need my earthly body anymore once I'm gone. I don't care what's done with it.

Studeclunker · Jan 28, 2009

Revrand, unless the crematorium has the permission of the family, no more than one person can be cremated at a time. It's illegal. The only case where it is legal is a mother and her stillborn child.

There have been several cases where unscrupulous operators have actually done several bodies at a time and then swept the combined remains into several boxes. There was even one in the south that was just throwing the bodies in a copse of trees in the back of the cemetary. Then they'd give the family a box of sand. The Crematorium was broken for thirty years. The Feds figure that there's over three or four hundred bodies in the woods behind the cemetary. The bones are such a jumble, they figure there's no way to accurately identify them.

The Crematorium at Melrose Abbey in Orange Ca. was caught up in a similar scandal to the multiple cremation thing. They were accused of doing so and faced Federal and State charges because of it. In the end it turned out that they were'nt guilty of any wrong doing. The cost of defending themselves though, bankrupted the funeral home. It's a pity that they were innocent and still financially ruined.

LutheranHawkeye · Jan 28, 2009

I don't care whether I'm cremated or not, but I would like my remains to be in the cemetery that all of my family's remains are, in rural central Iowa . I know it's not that big of a deal, but I would like to raise right by generations and generations of my family. Wishful thinking I guess!

DaRev · Jan 28, 2009

Flipper said:
I'm not going to need my earthly body anymore once I'm gone. I don't care what's done with it.

I'll need mine. I plan on being resurrected.

Flipper · Jan 28, 2009

I thought we get a new body for that.

Tofferer · Jan 28, 2009

I figure that God does not need my old body to bring me back, so if I am cremated, I don't rightly care. I would be perfectly fine with my body being tossed into an active volcano. However, I suspect that there may be a law against that.

RadMan · Jan 29, 2009

MarkRohfrietsch said:
The donation of ones remains to science is a noble and necessary part of training our health care workers. But it's not always as simple and straight forward.

FYI:

If you have had a lot of surgeries, or have died from certain diseases the institution can reject your remains.

Read the fine print on the donation contract.

Some institutions, when they are done with the remains contact the family to make arrangements for disposition; this includes the financial obligation to the Funeral Home.

Those that do not, incinerate the bits and pieces that are left as "medical waste", then the ashes are disposed of in land fill.

On a lighter note...

Many years ago in the City of Kingston Ontario Canada, the Roman Catholic Bishop died, and was interred in the crypt of the Chapel beside the Cathedral (which he had built). A few years ago the Chapel was found to need some major structural work. After some deliberation it was decided to disinter the Bishop's remains, do the repairs, and then put him back.

When they opened the crypt, there was no Bishop.

No one knows for sure, but they figure he was snatched by medical students from near-by Queen's University for dissection. Body snatching of this sort was a real problem in Kingston at that time (early to mid 1800's). At that time the only source of cadavers were unclaimed dead, indigents and executed criminals.

Queens University is still there, and is one of the top Universities in Canada. It also has the highest admission standards in the Country.

LCC has (I think it still is on the go) a mission in Kingston, and I believe they are using an Anglican Chapel that is part of Queen's.

Maybe the bishop was raptured. Seems to me that they get special dispensations from the church.

Cremation

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