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A comment on Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting. Parent comment

Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by walrus01 on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @05:01PM (#19985443)
The western cultural expectation of spending a lot of money on embalming, then dressing the dead in fancy expensive clothing and putting them in a $5000 ornate wood coffin which will immediately go into the ground to rot is perverse. It has created economic incentives on the part of funeral services corporations to extract as much money from a grieving family as possible.
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Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by NeedMoreTea on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @05:15PM (#19985585)
This is basically it. Particularly in the US where a burial has become astonishingly crass and perverse.

The size of the plot and headstone. The common use of heavyweight steel for coffins that can delay decomposition even longer. Concrete grave linings. Cremation is no better from an impact perspective.

I think they may be aiming for corpses that hang around as long as ancient Egypt achieved. :)

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Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by briandear on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @08:20PM (#19987074)
> Particularly in the US where a burial has become astonishingly crass and perverse.

Ever been to cemeteries in Paris? Giant monuments, incredibly ornate graves.. The US is far more modest by comparison.

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Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by NeedMoreTea on Thursday May 23, 2019 @02:43AM (#19989130)
You mean the 2 or 3 hundred year old ones? Victorians were often crass too. I meant in the current era.
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Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by Meandering on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @05:19PM (#19985627)
I agree that there is a financial incentive in the funeral industry. But...

In general, humanity has buried and burned people with expensive objects to show reverence or recognize status. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, etc. It's kind of a tradition to waste a bunch of money on the dead!

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Re:Washington state lawmakers approve human corpse composting by kelnos on Thursday May 23, 2019 @06:25AM (#19990320)
If it were all transparent and above-board, and people knew what they were paying for and why, I'd agree. But that's not really the case. My father died a few years ago, and it was obvious that the funeral home staff relies on you being in a compromised emotional state, such that you'll just say yes to anything and not question the price.
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