Wishes of remains *after* death

[StephyMei1112]

A snapshot or two of the body for personal reasons of comfort if one is comforted by that sort of thing I can understand. But full out photo-ops with family members and people POSING with the corpse? I'm sorry - I find it really vulgar, distasteful, disrespectful, and truly grotesque (who am I to say what is grotesque though after I just posted about liking to chew scabs though...?). My grandmother whom I wrote about in my latest post on my blog was subject to such photo shoots at her funeral...it was open casket - and there was a come-one-come-all body viewing the previous evening. I made it clear I was unhappy with it - and Lord knows grandma wouldn't have been happy about it either.

Originally Posted by Renee750il

That's in my neck of the woods It backs up to a parcel of property the Knox County Sheriff's Dept. uses as a recreational/training facility that Sheriff Buck (not his name, he got tagged with that after the American Gothic series) set up. There's been a lot of speculation as to how many odd bodies came in from the other side of the fence.

StephyMei summed up my feelings on it too. I want to slap people at funerals who photograph the body. Seriously? WTF???

[AdrianneIsabel]

I have no issue with photographing a dead body, nor posing with it. Cultures are weird and varied, even when I don't understand.

The body farm is a research facility having to do with the decomposition of bodies.

[Renee750il]

There were people who came into my grandfather's funeral who didn't even know him -- and they took photos! I was seething. He would have run them out -- at gunpoint if necessary, and none of his children said a word, I had to tell them to leave. And I took their film.

[k9krazee]

Ah, funerals and talking about my and my families wishes are probably talked about daily. My boyfriend and I, both funeral directors, keep an open dialog about it. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious but you have to have some sort of sense of humor when dealing with sadness and loss on a daily basis. I think I'd rather be buried.

There is value with laying a body out for visitation. We even have visitations without embalming (dry ice, visitation within 24 hours) and there are new , less invasive techniques being used. Embalming doesn't have to be the scary, surgical, preserve for 1000 years process anymore. We tell families that it's an IV of water, some dye and enough preservative to halt any decomp processes for a few days but leaves the body very natural.

Cremation can also take place after services are held. And at our funeral home we treat cremation & burial exactly the same -- we set appointment times for both and invite families to go to the crematory and cemetery. We eventually would like to have a crematory that we can go in procession to, as over half of all people are choosing cremation and it adds that element of taking and carrying your loved one to that final place.

I have yet to witness photo shoots with the dead, but there are some people that do take pictures. We have people asking us all the time if it's appropriate (they want to but don't want to look morbid).

None of the options are great - cremation, donation, burial or entombment. They all have pros and cons. In the end, the dead don't care & it's up to the survivors to choose what they need to do. Even with organ donation & cremation you have to have your next of kin's permission even if you've written down your wishes.

[Fran101]

My brother says he wants us to tote his body around like weekend at Bernie's lol

[puppydog]

This documentary affected me pretty badly. They toted this childs body around for days!!

www.abc.net.au/tv/layla/default.htm