What to do with remains

One of the biggest questions around death is what to do with the human body after someone has died. Today there are many new things you can do to honour and/or preserve a body, outside the most common burial or cremation. The options are impacted by region, culture + religion, and regulation but much innovation is happening in the human remain space. 

Some of the things people can request to be done with their bodies:

• Burial

• Green burial

• Cremation

• Water hydrolysis

• Human composting

• Donating organs

• Donating to science

• Turned into things like diamonds, trees, stones, records and tattoos

• Launched into space

Ideally a plan for what a person would like done with their body is completed in advance so the right service provider can be called (more on planning HERE). By researching and talking through the options with loved ones, you can ensure your remains are treated as you wish. Plus there can be cost savings from doing research and pre-planning - direct cremation and burial services can help save costs by taking out the funeral home middle-person who have come to control a big part of the process. 

People often feel rushed to call someone to take the body away but you can take a little time (if kept cool, bodies can remain at home up to a couple days) to ensure you have selected the right option and a service provider you feel confident in. It can even be peaceful to sit with a body as you process the transition. 

Nowadays, people are looking for additional choices that fit their personal values and lifestyle. Demand is also coming from rising economic and environmental criticism of the most widely available options. Cremation releases significant CO2 into the atmosphere, up to 400kg of CO2 per body, and burial, which is extremely costly and scarce, can also result in embalming toxins seeping into soil. 

Caitlin Doughty, mortician, author, Youtube star, and advocate for funeral industry reform has been on the forefront of championing a ‘good death’ which includes personalized experiences for everyone. In 2011, she founded the non-profit The Order of the Good Death, which spawned the ‘death positive movement’ and is working to legalize additional options including human composting and aquamation in all fifty U.S. states. 

Here’s an overview of some of the options available to handle human remains after someone has died:

Burial

Burial is the most traditional way to handle remains where a casket is placed in a grave or mausoleum, and the remains are interred. 

Burial practices have been around for thousands of years and have evolved throughout history and across different cultures. The earliest forms of burial involved simple interments in shallow pits or mounds of earth, often accompanied by basic grave goods like tools or food.  Over time, burial practices became more complex and elaborate, reflecting cultural and religious beliefs about death and the afterlife. For example, ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife and developed elaborate burial practices, including mummification and the construction of elaborate tombs and pyramids. In some cultures, burial practices are closely tied to religious or spiritual beliefs. For example, many Christian traditions involve burying the deceased in consecrated ground, while some First Nation cultures practiced sky burial, where the body was left out in the open to be consumed by birds.

In modern times, burial practices have become more standardized and regulated, with many countries implementing laws and regulations around the handling and disposal of human remains. This has also led to a more commercial approach around death and burial, which takes out some of the more human and personal elements out of the experience. 

The average cost of a funeral with burial is $8000 US/CAD. Prices swing drastically depending on where a person will be buried. Cemetery plots can range from $10,000-$80,000 based on urban vs. rural location, inventory, and overall demand. 

You can save some costs for funeral and burial by ordering a casket directly. You can buy a casket through Costco, order from a direct to consumer business like Titan or purchase a super simple cardboard casket (note: some funeral homes will not accept caskets if they can’t ensure it will properly support the body). 

On the rise are green burials which are an environmentally-friendly alternative that involves burying the body in a biodegradable casket or shroud without embalming fluids, in a natural setting.

Better Place Forests provides a natural forest cemetery and lets you select a tree where ashes are mixed with soil and planted at the roots. And Green Burial Canada lists all the places in Canada that offer the service.

Cremation

Cremation is growing in popularity around the world, especially as people look to reduce costs, increase choice, and urban areas run out of space to bury bodies. Cremation involves exposing the body to flame and intense heat to reduce a dead body to tiny bits of ash and bone. After the body is cremated, the ashes are typically placed in an urn or vessel. 

The cremation rate in Canada has been increasing steadily with the national average rate rising from 5.9% in 1970 to 68.4% in 2009. In the United States, projections from the Cremation Association of North America forecast a national average of 59.4% in 2023 and in the UK, about three-quarters of bodies are cremated. Japan has one of the highest cremation rates in the world at 99.97% in 2019 -  the practice has been a part of their culture for centuries (and they also have some very innovative ways to memorialize the remains).

A benefit of cremation is that it also provides a material loved one and the family can save, share, or disperse. Ashes from cremation can be spread out in meaningful places or stored in meaningful urns including this modern one, a full moon shaped, and this bird. There are tons of businesses that help you transform the ashes into materials and keepsake objects you can keep such as diamonds, stones, and even tattoo ink (more HERE).

Average cost of a cremation is $2000 US/CAD.

Modern businesses such as ​Eirene in Canada and Solace Cares in the U.S. offer online booking, strong customer service, and transparent pricing for cremation.

Mallory Greene of Eirene Cremations says “We started Eirene to create the kind of services that we would want for our loved ones — one that combines high-quality, compassionate services, with a convenient arrangement process, at a price that makes sense to our families.” 

Alkaline Hydrolysis

Alkaline hydrolysis, also known as ‘water cremation’ or ‘aquamation’, is a process that uses water, alkali, and heat to reduce the body to bone fragments. These fragments can be kept or shared with relatives much like cremated ashes. Aquamation has no direct emissions of harmful greenhouse gasses or mercury and does not require the burning of fossil fuels.

Desmond Tutu, the archbishop of Cape Town and anti-apartheid activist, requested aquamation for his remains and helped popularize it. But the service is not available in all countries and states. In Canada, Eirene lists which provinces and states.

Sweden is also working on a liquid nitrogen solution that turns the body into powder.

Human Composting

Human composting, also known as ‘terramation’, is the natural organic reduction of human remains to soil. 

It works by placing a body in an enclosure, after non-organic materials (such as metal fillings, pacemakers and artificial joints) have been removed. Warm air and organic materials such as wood chips, alfalfa, and straw are added to help speed up the process of decomposition. Over the course of about 30 days, the body, including bones and teeth, break down into soil, creating about a cubic meter of soil. 

Ask a Mortician has a great video on how it works.

Human composting is still a very new process and only available in select regions (as of March 2023, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington in the U.S.) but advocacy campaigns are pushing for more access to this eco alternative. In Washington state, Recompose sells a “human composting” service that turns your body into soil for US$7,000. 

Donating to Science

After someone dies, donating the body to science, also known as whole-body donation, is a way to contribute to medical research, training and education. The specifics of how the body is used may depend on the donor's wishes and the needs of the program or institution. The arrangements are made in advance and you can have some say in how/where the body will be used.

Ask a Mortician shares details in this video and here’s more on the process in the U.S. and Canada.

When the institution has finished using the body, it is typically cremated, and the remains are either returned to the family or scattered in a manner specified by the donor.

Donating Organs

Organ donation after death is a process in which an individual's organs are removed and transplanted into someone in need after the individual has passed away. It can be a meaningful way to leave a legacy and help another person.

In the U.S., you can register at organdonor.gov, in Canada at beadonor.ca, and in the UK at NHS.

Space Burial

One of the more far out there, and least eco-friendly, options is a space burial. It involves launching the cremated remains into space. The service is typically arranged through private companies that specialize in space memorial services such as Beyond Burials which sells a Moon Memorial sending ashes to the moon for US$7,500.

It's important to note that the laws for handling remains vary by region and country, therefore some options may not yet be available where you live. (The Bereavement Authority of Ontario has a good guide about what is available in the province.) And that the choices for handling remains can be influenced by personal, cultural, religious, and ethical considerations. Some families may choose to have a combination of options as well.

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