What do you want to happen to your corpse?

I want to be buried (unmarked) in a biodegradable bag underneath a big tree so my decomposing body feeds the tree.

I want to be laid out on a rock and eaten by Jeffrey Dahmer.

I have a spot in the family plot in a lovely cemetery in Westchester county. Technically, it’s not reserved for me. My mother and her parents are buried there. There are fives spaces left. Her sister’s husband has his own family plot and I think that branch of the family will be diverted to it. That leaves me (single) and my two brothers (both divorced) as potential claimants. However, if my Aunt does want to buried with her parents, it’ll be first come first served.

I wish green burial (what R1 describes, where the body is allowed to rapidly decompose in the earth) had been an option in your poll, OP. That's what I want.

Yep, like R1 and R4, I plan to be under a tree - apple, in my case, to help the pollinators out.

I'm curious if anyone would actually want to eat the apples, but I'm happy never knowing that.

"Green burial" is burial.

We'll all keep our fingers crossed for you, R3.

I've willed my body to a medical school, but if it ends up they can't use it I've told my next of kin to dispose of it in whatever inexpensive way they choose, maybe cremation or alkaline hydrolysis.

My uncle donated his body to science. A friend of mine had a BSC sociopathic ex-wife who believes in cryogenic and plans to freeze her entire body including head after she dies.

I want to be laid down on a rock in the middle of the Ganges darling, and just be pecked by birds!

I want to donate my body to a body farm like the one the University of Tennessee runs.

I expect my corpse will remain gorgeous until a weasel chews my face off.

Direct cremation, no embalming, no viewing, then scattered here.

(Or "green burial" if that's not an option.)

I recently updated my will and included instructions that I be directly cremated as soon as legally possible, which here in Massachusetts is 48 hours after death.

As for my ashes, I couldn't care less what happens to them.

R13, how much does direct cremation cost?

I want my corpse dipped in bronze and turned into a statue with a plaque that reads: “He truly was one of the bossiest bottoms that has ever lived.” It will be placed at one of my favorite spots to spend my time, next to a lake sitting on a bench underneath a tree in a park surrounded by hungry ducks and chirping birds...or maybe that cruise-y men’s room with the open urinals, I haven’t decided yet.

Turned into mince meat and fed to my cat.

R14, I paid just under $800 for a simple cremation last year.

And yet you’re still with us R17. So clearly your budget cremation was a FAIL!

I'd like to be left on the sidewalk on the Wednesday after I die (that's the pick-up day on my street) in a Hefty contractor bag. Let the city pick up my remains - I've paid taxes here for years: they owe me.

They can compost me, recycle me, incinerate me, or deposit me in the landfill for all I care: I'll be dead.

Cremated and have my ashes spread over Vivian Vance's grave.

But what if in the far future they figure out a way to reanimate the dead (I mean as you were in life)? If you've been cremated, then where will you be? I'm going to be buried in a sealed coffin just in case.

But I did like Stephen Zeeland's plan to have his ashes spread in a USMC urinal.

I'd like to be frozen in carbonite.

My will calls for cremation; however, I like R4's green option. It's stupid but the idea of being burned up creeps me out, as does being pumped full of chemicals, stuffed in a box and then buried. I'd love to be wrapped up and placed on a biodegradable bier and left to decompose. But where could one do such a thing?

I want it re-animated.

Dumped in a landfill, if I'm lucky.

Natural burial.

I irrationally dislike the idea of being cremated.

R10 that's very similar to what Zoroastrians do with their dead; however, not in the Ganges as that's holy for Hindus.

Short article linked below.

[quote] I've willed my body to a medical school, but if it ends up they can't use it I've told my next of kin to dispose of it in whatever inexpensive way they choose, maybe cremation or alkaline hydrolysis.

I've left my body to Columbia Medical School. If you die within 60 miles of New York they even come and get you for free. My understanding is that med schools will offer bodies to other schools based on who needs what and when. I don't care, I'm dead.

After their done with you, they cremate what's left of you, again for free, and offer the ashes to your specified next of kin. There's even a yearly ceremony for all the donors, should your survivors wish to attend, which is nice, since I don't want a funeral.

My only caveat is that they don't use me in a lecture entitled "Don't Let This Happen to You"

[quote] After their done with you

s/b "After they're done with you..."

R28 that’s nice of you to do that. When I took my anatomy/ physiology classes, I learned so much from the cadaver we had, and I treated the body with respect. Each time before I left it I always said thank you, I don’t know why but I was the only one who did it.

I need to make my funeral arrangements just because I don’t want my elderly parents or siblings have to deal with it. I’ve been thinking a lot about whether to go with cremation or burial of my body. I know I’ll be dead, but I don’t like the idea of either happening.

I've prepaid for a direct cremation - $1200.

Re: donating one's body to science, I've looked into this and learned that I'm not eligible, since I'm HIV positive. You'd think medical schools might occasionally want to dissect poz corpses, but apparently not.

While cremation is probably the best choice for me, I've always had an irrational fear of waking up as I'm being cremated because I wasn't actually dead.

Being buried alive was so common during the Victorian era that they actually had to devise various methods to deal with it, such as so-called "safety coffins" to smoke enemas.

[quote]“Blowing smoke up someone’s arse” was not always a simple figure of speech indicating someone was being an insincere flatterer. Tobacco smoke enemas became a mainstream practice in the 1700s, treating many common ailments such as headaches, respiratory illnesses, and the resuscitation of drowning victims. The practice was thought to provide two essential elements: warming the person’s body and stimulating respiration. Richard Mead was the first known Westerner to suggest tobacco smoke enemas as an effective treatment for resuscitation in 1745.

It doesn’t matter what I want—the cat is going to eat it.