Boil in the Bag : Funerals

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Interesting news in the Guardian, and presumably elsewhere

MichaelG.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Having turned most of you into soap, where do they sell the soap?

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Our microwave is Far too small to boil a human😉👹

Edited By V8Eng on 03/07/2023 08:33:39

[John PParticipant @johnp77052]

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Bit more trash to keep the post count up.

Regards Ian.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Tea room talk for old duffers

Now it's on the horizon I aint got a clue what I'd "like", none of them have any great appeal

My pal donated herself to science, no funeral, nuffink, here today gone tomorrow

I'd probably prefer that approach, cart me off for disposal and no hoo-ha

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Bearing in mind the thread title, my first thought was is the reaction exothermic ? Noel.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

As someone rapidly, ie 17 days to go, approaching his 80th birthday, suffering from BigC, and possibly other stuff as well, I do look forward with, well, I don't know what. Fear? Trepidation? Pain – well, I've got that already. And so on. Yes folks, I'm well aware now that end of life beckons, and I'm trying to get rid of stuff. Indeed, the workshop hasn't been used this year, actually probably since last October. What do I want? The Fire? The Flood? The Ground? So far no-one's come back to say how it feels, so don't know what I want. Perhaps I'll chicken out and leave it to someone else to decide, coward that I am.

Not good, not good.

All I can say is that when I look back and see what I, an ex-Grammar School lad with 3 'O' Levels and (eventually) a C&G Full Technological Certificate, managed to achieve without too much effort, well, it's not been too bad a life.

Melancholy. Or what?

Peter G. Shaw

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Posted by Mark Rand on 03/07/2023 07:56:35:

Having turned most of you into soap, where do they sell the soap?

Soap? They'll be making lampshades from us next.

Not that I'd take anything from the Guardian as fact.

Martin.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Now that the discussion is ‘on-track’ … I will just mention that [like Ady’s friend], I have offered my whole body to ‘Science’ : In my case that is specifically to Keele University.

**LINK**

https://www.keele.ac.uk/medicine/ourfacilities/anatomy/donating/

Only if [when the big day comes] they refuse it, will my children have the disposal decision to make.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ posted before I saw Blowlamp’s intervention

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/07/2023 11:18:28

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

My father-in-law's body went to Nottingham Queens University Teaching Hospital. We had a funeral service without a coffin/body. I think it was about 10 years later when they informed us that his remains had been completely disposed of. I think I may do the same thing.

Martin C

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Posted by blowlamp on 03/07/2023 11:09:27:

Posted by Mark Rand on 03/07/2023 07:56:35:

Having turned most of you into soap, where do they sell the soap?

Soap? They'll be making lampshades from us next.

Not that I'd take anything from the Guardian as fact.

Martin.

Soap is what you get when you react animal fats with potassium hydroxide in the right concentration.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Quote from the aforementioned News item:

Northumbrian Water has granted approval for the resulting water to be sent back into the drainage network as “trade effluent”, the same permit used by launderettes.

MichaelG.

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

I'd like to be left outside, under a hedge possibly somewhere in the Penines.

Roy

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

The Guardian was right in reporting the method being developed, though I do not know how it described it, and I would not be surprised if it was the newspaper who invented the stupid and insensitive "boil in a bag" description. To which, I would add feeble attempts at jokes about soap are just as bad.

It has just been covered on the BBC Radio Four news programme but it is not not new news: I learnt of this in a programme about various funeral method some while ago. Last year I think; and covering "woodland" and sea-burials too.

The "water cremation" as it is sometimes called, uses a hot alkaline solution to reduce the body to, eventually, a white powder no different by the relatives' point of view, from the ashes from a gas or electric cremator*.

The liquid, rendered safe for disposal, is probably discharged into the drain but the interviewee was understandably rather coy about that, talking instead about "returning it to the natural water cycle". She did though say it contains no material such as DNA. (I would not expect that to survive any cremation method.)

.

*("Cremator" is the proper term: it is not an "oven" or "furnace"!)

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Quite so, Nigel … much of what you mention is noted in the Guardian article.

And … as you were wondering … [I would not be surprised if it was the newspaper who invented the stupid and insensitive "boil in a bag" description.] … it  also contains a direct link to this page: 

https://www.aquatorium.com/

 

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/07/2023 14:26:07

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

FWIW, piece of advice picked up from somewhere. Write a letter of wishes e.g., what do you want done with your body, burial (expensive), cremation (bit cheaper) donated to science (free) unless you want some sort of memorial service or ' boil in the bag'. Bugger me, whatever next. A letter of wishes could include things other than funerary wishes but anything of monetary value needs to go in a will setting out disposal and assessment for taxman to have his last greedy bite. The letter could be stored with your will, if you make one, with a copy given to your Executor.

As for flushing the dissolved remains down the drain/ sewage system, yuk!   a bit more for a gobfull when you go swimming, which I dont.

Edited By DMB on 03/07/2023 14:19:26

[Chuck TaperParticipant @chucktaper]

My own thoughts on reading the article.

1 human (H) per 100 gallons (g) of water.

Average human body 14g (UK gal)

0.14 H/g (is there a corresponding SI unit!).

Tis still a fair concentration of whatever is left at the end of the process – and they intend to let it down the drain ????

Is there an upper concentration at which it exceeds the relevant standard?

Regards.

Frank C.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Posted by roy entwistle on 03/07/2023 13:36:14:

I'd like to be left outside, under a hedge possibly somewhere in the Penines.

Roy

Nice for me cremation then ashes taken down the SVR and popped into the firebox of what ever is in steam on the day

H

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Not so many hedges in the Pennines, but I expect they'll find a nice cosy dry-stone wall for you.

The original programme I heard described the process (I think called 'racematising' in chemistry?) as only what bacteria do in Nature, but a lot more rapidly, a lot less unpleasantly and of course without the microbes and potentially harmful by-products.

Or the CO2 emissions from the fuel alone of a gas-fired cremator, which uses a prodigious amount of fuel partly due to (originally) EU regulations demanding a higher temperature than really needed, and pre-heating.

[Author]

Posts