Is it ghoulish to talk about death at Halloween? Well, Crunchy Chicken of Green Moms Carnival is asking carnival bloggers to consider the environmental impact of the after-life. If your end-of-life plans don't involve becoming one of the undead, one option to consider is donating your body to science.
When I was a teenager, a budding environmentalist learning about ecological science at a suburban high school across the street from an enormous cemetery, I decided that I wanted to be buried in a burlap bag under a tree. Two decades ago, that probably wasn't possible. The proliferation of green burial providers in the last few of years though, means it probably is now.
I've since become less sentimental about what actually happens to my body when I'm done with it, but I would still like to reduce the environmental impact on the planet and the financial impact on my family of dealing with my remains.
When writing their wills last year, my parents chose to have their bodies donated to science. Not giving that much thought to it, I assumed that meant medical school anatomy class or something similar, complete with formaldehyde or other embalming fluids to enable a months-long class to study their bodies. What research for this carnival taught me is that the term is actually much broader than that.
Without getting too graphic, whole body donations allow medical schools and research institutions to teach anatomy and surgery and perform experiments that would be impossible with synthetic or animal alternatives. Importantly, many tissue banks serve researchers who don't actually need whole bodies (despite the term for the donation) and can easily accommodate lifesaving organ donations prior to accepting the rest of the body.
The ecological impacts of body donation are unclear because of the diverse possible uses of the cadaver, some of which involve preservation fluids, and final disposal of the remains, which will depend on state regulations and the requirements of individual tissue banks.
Whole body donation certainly avoid several environmental hazards of the traditional funeral industry:
- According to Green Burials Association, cemeteries have gobbled up 2.2 million acres of land in the United States. To increase their customer base, those grassy expanses of mostly treeless lawns peppered with headstones must expand.
- Planet Green reports that 1.6 tons of reinforced concrete, with its associated energy use and carbon emissions, is buried in the United States each year in the construction of cemetery vaults.
- According to the Green Casket Company, the traditional funeral industry buries 30 million board feet of hardwoods, 90,272 tons of steel and 2,700 tons of copper and bronze annually in the form of caskets.
The real benefit of whole body donation, though, is its service to people. Science Care, the first non-transplant accredited U.S. tissue bank, reports contributing to medical research and training in cochlear implants, coronary artery disease, spinal injuries, osteoporosis, paramedic training, and many other medical specialties.
When we went to China a few years back, we started our trip with a couple days in New York. One of the things we did was visit Bodies: The Exhibit. My husband, the self-described anatomy geek, was in heaven.
We wandered multiple rooms of silicone-placticized cadavers dissected to display various anatomical features and often arranged in life-like poses. The effect was mesmerizing. The dissections illustrated the amazing complexity of the human body. The posed cadavers, with their skin and racially identifying features removed, clearly sent the message: these were people, beautiful people, people just like you.
If he so desires and is done with his own body, Mac could decide to join the exhibit.
For more details on anatomical or whole body donation, see my article
Donate your Body to Science: Burial Alternative Saves Lives.
When I was teaching advanced biology, I took my students to a medical school cadaver lab. At first, it was a little unsettling for the students, but it did not take long for them to become accustomed to the smell and sight of a cadaver. They had their noses right in the thick of things. After reading your blog I think that is the way to go (so to speak). Thanks!
Posted by: Linda Anderson | October 31, 2010 at 04:36 PM