It makes perfect sense to me. Once I'm done with this husk, might as well feed something else with it. My wife's culture buries without embalming and without any sort of casket. The corpse is tied up into a fetal position at home by female relatives and the men bury the dead in a fairly shallow grave. A reed is inserted into the tomb to allow the dead's spirit to leave after three days. The grave is visited by male relatives on the morning of the third day when the spirit is fed with red corn meal to help speed it on it's way. After that, the grave is abandoned and not visited again. It's irrelevant from that point on and is no more important that the trash in the dump. I've seen quite a few older graves that are eroding out, and nobody cares. Modern approach-avoidance of the reality of dead people is odd. I never go to family funerals for that reason. They are, to me, bizarre beyond understanding. My final instructions are clear to all, either cremate me and dump me in the creek and have a big party and get drunk, or bury me in the pasture with my animals and have a big party and get drunk. No casket, no makeup, no embalming.

I have often thought of simply leaving my body to the local medical college. If we want good medical professionals in the future, we have to train them. I thought maybe I would leave a video message to the students who would be cutting me up. Explain different things they should find and how the injuries happened. Tell them it is ok with me for them to laugh and point and make jokes and that I will be watching and laughing with them. Maybe include some footage of me at different ages so they can better understand the aging process and its effects on a person. Once I am finished with this body, I see no reason why it can't be usefull to other good people.

Then again as Josie Wales says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6oLuLecQ4

Per my late uncle's Will: “My further wishes and directives are as follows: There is to be no funeral of any kind, nor the sending of flowers or cards. Instead use the money to have a beer for me. If you want closure – put the cap back on the beer bottle. This request shall be printed in all obituary notices.” And it was. Well, except for the Bangor Daily News which doesn't allow any alcohol references in their obituary section. "have a beer" became "have one" and "beer bottle" became "bottle." Everyone who knew him got the gist.

The same uncle donated his body to the University of New England for research purposes (he was very interested on the effects of aircraft carrier launches and landings on the body and ways those impacts might be controlled), which may have had something to do with his desire for no wake or funeral to slow that process down. When they're done with it (6 mos. to 2 yrs.), they'll send us his ashes and we'll stick them in the family plot.

He opened my eyes to alternative end-of-game rituals. He was the first in the family to forgo the traditional casket and funeral route with burial in our plot on the hill in the village cemetary. I became an organ donor (he was supposed to be but the cancer just ravaged him) and will be sending what's left to UConn Med School thanks to his blazing the trail. I'd like to have what's left blended into a fertilizer and spread on the front lawn or something. :D

We put burred my grandfathers ash's over one of his favorite fishing spots.

I have the GPS coordinates if I ever want to visit.

Certainly beats being embalmed and displayed like a prize in an over-priced casket. The funeral industry preys on the mournful and sad. Although I don't think I'd want to be the "facilitator" I can see where a practice like this makes sense. Our bodies are nothing after we die, and unless we are in a culture where organ donation goes on, worth nothing. At least this way, animals get to eat. Circle of life.

I'm just sending the fertilizer....:D

My brother passed away when he was 37 (Kidney failure), We 'donated' a bench to the local public park system (the remaining 5 sbilings and 2 parents couldnt agree on a final plan:( ) so now, every once in a while, we go visit "Brother Walt's bench" (they nameplate the bench when you 'donate' one, and I'm sure the park district makes money on this deal, so it was a win-win all around.

I like the idea of the video. I spent some time with my former brother in law inspecting the corpse his group was dissecting in medical school. They called him Otto. It would have been nice for them to know more about him.

I have an acquaintance with a son in med school. In their anatomy class they are each assigned a cadaver for the duration of the class. If it's a medical donation situation, the student meets and gets to know the family of the "subject" and gets to see pictures, etc. I guess it's a way of making it more personal in an effort to "humanize" the experience.
Not sure if it's common practice.

I will donate my body to science fiction.

I figure I have enough bumps, fractures and what-not to be interesting/informative. Providing the back-story might just help some doctor someday know what some injury or illness can do to a patient they are helping. I think the trick any more is making sure your carcus goes where you want instead of being sold by the school to someplace else. My organs are not good material for organ donation for some other reasons, but one I'm toast, no reason they can't disect and learn. Wait until they get to my poor toes, "What the heck was that guy kicking?" (karate). I've taken two really nasty bumps to the back of my head so I'd be curious if there was any skull/brain damage (no, I cannot explain away the way I am THAT easy!) And a bunch of other injuries (all my own fault).
Wife has a brother who was the recipient of donated kidney and pancreas. She has signed up (and told me her wishes) for organ donation. I think she and I both figure "heck if I'm outa here, use what you need".
Another interesting way to do it is "The Facility", as it is know at the University of Tennesse. Place where they study bodies decaying in various manners to gain insight for criminal investigations. I suspect more than a few real bad guys are in jail due to the knowledge investigators have gained with that place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tennessee_Anthropological_Research_Facility

UCLA had a bout of bad publicity when it turned out their cadaver donation program was being misused by some administrator who was selling tissue, mostly bone for fusion surgery, for profit.

The human body, except for the few artifical parts we add to them, is highly biodegradeable, so why not take advantage of that feature?

Think of all the real estate that has been pre-empted from productive use due to cadaver disposal.

It's too bad we can't have ourselves parted out for profit before going to the scrap heap. :)

Those wacky Tibetans!

I like the Viking Burial myself...due to the economics of being dead I don't want to saddle the living with having to make costly decisions so I am requesting to be dressed in my finest furs and have my Manolo Blahniks on my tootsies as I am rolled into that giant microwave. The ashes are to be put into a Frangelica bottle and or Ben and Jerry's ice cream carton which ever is empty at the time.

My dad, aunt and uncle Zorro all did the Neptune Society thing where they get your body, cremate it and spread the ashes at sea. The state of Virginia frowns on such things....