Should I Donate My Cadaver To Science?

Working through the issues.

Photo by How-Soon Ngu on Unsplash

There has been a great deal of discussion recently in various media about the growing industry of green funerals. For those of you not familiar with the topic, a green funeral is taking steps for minimizing negative environmental effects include avoiding embalming, doing away with concrete vaults, rethinking burial containers, therefore coffins and maintaining and protecting the natural habitat.

With a green funeral, choices can be made at each step of the death care process to limit waste, reduce the carbon footprint and even nourish the local ecosystem. There are many different types of green funerals and a search on the internet will reveal these to you.

I am leaning towards avoiding a funeral altogether, green or otherwise and just donate my mortal remains to one of the local universities. For one thing, it avoids the cost of a funeral and the family don’t have to worry about my bodily remains as a call to the designated number at the university sets in motion them taking my body off the family’s hands.

I have three reasons for moving towards this type of farewell. First of all the cost. Funerals are ridiculously expensive. In Canada, the average funeral costs $8,500 when carried out through funeral homes. However, the funeral cost is heavily influenced…