Do you need to be buried in a casket in a cemetery?

I don’t want to be buried. I am more than happy to be cremated, and I don’t care what happens to my ashes. I wouldn’t want people to spend money on my funeral.

I’ve opted to be cremated, though that comes with it’s own environmental problems. There’s an ever increasing interest in green burial

If you donate your body to science you get a free cremation, that’s what I’m going to do.

Here you are required to have a casket for burial, as far as I know, and if you want a special license to be buried on private land, or in a family burial plot on your property it’s a hassle, but can be done.

Ya damn hippy :P

I want the same thing. Last time I talked to the Woosters he told me it was illegal to have a green burial in NJ.(ground water contamination issues or something) Don’t know how much truth there is to it though.

Not yet.

Just the opposite, I want to be cremated in a cardboard box and have my ashes scattered where it will be most irritating to Congress.

No, of course not, you can do whatever you want with your remains. Cremation, science, the Neptune society. I am opting for cremation and my friend whom I have ridden horses with for years wants to be cremated and have her ashes put in a mesh bag and tied to her horses tail to be swished down the trail. The last trail ride. haha

I’d contact a local funeral home. Here in NYS you can be buried however you want but the preparations have to be overseen by a funeral director. I assume they’re licensed.

If not cremation, they could just dump me in the sea to become plenty of food for fish! Couldn’t be bothered with useless and fancy stuff!

I think they do have cheap biodegradable caskets or whatever.
When I die, I’d just like my body to be dumped in the woods or something and just rot, you know? I guess donating my body to science like @KNOWITALL said would be cool, too.

There are body farms, too. I think you just rot away and people like forensics students study your remains. You’ll be helping them learn how to solve murder mysteries and stuff.

Actually, I already have a grave. Only to make my wife happy. Not that I do not like the spot, it is in a small cemetery on family land but I do not want to be there.
I would prefer to be cremated, sealed in a box or bottle, put on my kids mantle and handed down from generation to generation for several hundred years.

I came to this decision when my wife and children nixed my earlier idea of buying a boat, some gasoline and a small amount of explosives instead of a casket (it would cost about the same). My thought was to be put on the boat, in a sitting position with a small electric motor that made my hand wave (kind of like a puppet on a stick) and have the boat started and set adrift into a large body of water. After a short time, in deep enough water, the explosives would go off, the gasoline, boat and me would catch fire and then sink into the water. Kind of like a modified viking ship funeral They think I am nuts.

@rojo That actually sounds like a great way to go out. Hire someone to film it and you got your own memorial too.

I carry a full body donor card in my wallet, so I don’t need to worry about that.

I’m a donor just like @YARNLADY. I don’t care what happens to the leftovers since, you know, I’ll be dead.

A “full body” donor? Well, they aren’t going to want my aging breasts.
I guess they can be studied for the effects of gravity.
“Now students of medicine, observe the loss of breast structure in women over age 50.” lol

I know when we had my dad’s funeral we were given the option to rent a ‘presentation’ casket for the service and have the actual burial done in a plain pine box. So I imagine as long as there are no laws against it you don’t need a casket.

State law did require us to have a sealed vault to put the remains into if they were buried.

If you read the hilarious and horrifying (to me) book “STIFF” by a Mary Roach, you will find out all the horrid things they do to donated bodies, like use them for crash-test dummies, and also all the options for green burial, cremation, body farm (smelly!), fancy church burial, the works. It’s a great, great book. Funny but truthful and also horrible.

This was my girlfriends idea. Have a forrest cemetery. Ever tree would have a dead person under it. It’s awesome if you can get over the morbidness of it.

@rojo

Have you been watching one too many reruns of “Rocket Gibraltar” ?

:D

@Buttonstc not familiar with that, will have to look it up though.

I’m getting cremated. I don’t like the idea of buying an expensive box, my husband did that. I have everything. I just need to die. My name is even on the tombstone.

@simone54 sounds like the setting of a shitty horror movie…..

@uberbatman Yes, someone would build a house in said forrest and one single old person would explain to the family exactly what happened year before.

@susanc I would feel honored if I knew my body was being used in a body farm to study the forensic results of decay and such.

There are cemetaries where they just wrap you in cloth I think. I saw a show once where the owner wanted a place where the dead remains actually went back to the earth. Jewish people are supprised to be buried in a simple pine box that would breakdown fairly quickly. Much quicker than a shellacked coffin with synthetic fabric inside. We also are not supposed to be embalmed so we go back to the earth. Lifecycle and all that jazz. Anyway, a simple pine box is much cheaper than those fancy things you often see.

I’d rather be left into the forest to be a meal to the animals but that’s kind of illegal.

I’m an organ donor now but when I’m much older, I’ll opt to donate my entire body to science. I get a real kick out of thinking about new medical students opening me up and discovering the wonders of the human body. It would be cool to be a part of that.

Plus I’m going to have my sleeve surgery done this fall, so they will be wondering why my stomach is so small and malformed. Hahaha.

When you die it says Rest In Peace so I am guessing they reason for on it to make you rest nicely when you die. Instead of just putting who ever in a whole and putting dirt all over them it is a bit disrespectful.

@Amo101 Some people think polluting the earth with chemically treated bodies and coffins disrespects mother earth. Customs for burial have been very varied and have changed a lot over time and from culture to culture.

@rojo

It’s a lesser known movie but at the end of it the kids throw one hell of a Viking funeral for the old man. That’s why I was joking about too many reruns.

And McCauley Culkin is just a really little kid. Very cute.