Rhode Island House Approves ‘Human Composting’ Option for ‘Deathcare’
While proponents tout the “green” aspects of “natural organic reduction”, others are concerned about the callousness of treating human remains as trash.
The drive to push everything “organic” has hit the final frontier.
Since Washington state first approved the ‘human composting’ option for disposing of remains, seven other states have followed suit and approved this particular method of burial (Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon, New York, Nevada, and Vermont).
It appears Rhode Island is poised to be next, as the state House of Representatives just approved a bill supporting this ‘deathcare’ option. Composting a body is very similar to the process associated with other organic materials.
The process uses large vessels to hold human remains together with wood chips, straw or other natural materials for about 30 days, during which the human remains and organic materials are mixed with warm air and periodically turned.
This results in the body breaking down until only a soil material remains, which can then be given to the deceased’s family.
The bill’s sponsor makes it seem like the last grand virtue-signaling gesture that could be made.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Michelle McGaw, would legalize natural organic reduction, which is commonly referred to as human composting, and allow Rhode Islanders to choose it as an alternative to burial or cremation.
“Not everyone is comfortable with the impact of burial, which occupies land, or cremation, which emits a significant amount of carbon,” McGaw explained. “Natural organic reduction is a greener alternative that may be preferable for those concerned about how their final wishes affect the planet.”
…“For people who have respected the earth and tried to lighten their impact on it in life, it makes sense to also want to take the greenest, most environmentally beneficial route in death,” McGaw said. “This is an option that we should work to make available here in Rhode Island, for our people and for our planet.”
Other state legislators were less supportive and expressed concern about human remains being treated like trash.
Rep. Arthur Corvese, D-North Providence, said the issue is “visceral” and that constituents will complain that the legislature took time to consider a bill to allow people to choose how their bodies are dealt with, a trivial matter, compared to more important issues like the Washington Bridge failure, infrastructure problems and the housing crisis, and that it would be divisive.
….”On the other end, the darker side, where I reside, that is where you can’t shake the nagging image, the feeling, the part and parcel of continuation of disrespect for life, the continuation of the culture of death and callousness, we see permeating through the country,” Corvese said.
Rep. Teresa Tanzi, D-South Kingstown, shot back that she was “one of them” and that there was no need to make the issue divisive.
“This is not something that’s being thrust upon anyone, this is the way we as individuals will be choosing how we return to the earth,” Tanzi said.
Rep. Charlene Lima, D-Cranston, said human remains aren’t refuse and should be treated with “respect after death” and that allowing people to choose to be composted was roughly equivalent to treating human remains as trash.
Let’s hope the choice of ‘deathcare’ is not thrust upon anyone by mandates. It seems not everyone is comfortable with the idea of using remains as potting soil.
When New York considered their human composting bill, the New York State Catholic Conference released a memorandum of opposition provided to Newsweek that explained why they believe the process should not be made legal.
“Like many faith traditions, the Catholic Church’s reverence for the sacredness of the human body and its dignity arises out of concern for both the body’s natural and supernatural properties. It is therefore essential that the body of a deceased person be treated with reverence and respect,” the memorandum reads.
It continues: “A process whereby human remains are composted and scattered ‘in a designated scattering garden or area in a cemetery’ (bill language) fails to sufficiently respect the dignity due the deceased.”
I am “pro-choice” for funeral options. Personally, I am hoping for an ancient Egyptian-style mummification. As long as I can make my own decisions in this matter, I don’t have an issue with the choices others make.
Unfortunately, recent experience suggests that eco-activists don’t hesitate to make their preferences for today everyone’s requirements for tomorrow.
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Comments
“Human compost” is going to carry human disease. This is as dumb as trying out cannibalism.
The process kills most bacteria and viruses. As long as the deceased didn’t have TB, Ebola or CJD, there’s very little risk. Farmers often compost dead livestock if they have available space.
Or just dig a hole, bury them, including pets. When I had chickens I placed all the varmints in maggot buckets, Flies would lay their eggs, maggots would crawl out, where the chickens were waiting .for the treat. Chicken crap is a very hot fertilizer, which I with leaves to create more mild humus fertilizer. In the end nature recycles everything. Consider all our water probably passed through something digestive system.
No, it won’t.
Ovens, then feed the remains through a grinder and make poutine for the unwashed masses. Balance the population according to dietary needs and live a healthy life until age 30.
Problems solved!
What? Leftists aren’t pushing the Soylent Green option yet?
I have just two words to offer. “Soylent Green”
“Soylent Green is….. people!”
Nice reference!
Does human composting work?
Yes it does! Trials have been conducted at the White House for the past four years. Biden, the first compost president, is literally falling apart at the seams. The first thing to go was his mind. His body began to disintegrate soon thereafter.
All that’s left is the formal obsequies to observed with fitting dignity, accentuated by resounding volleys.
As his emaciated, frail frame fell forward Mr Biden’s head was severed from his body. It hit the ground, rolled into a patch of peonies while silently mouthing “Threat To Democracy”.
Jeez. Biden is not an example of composting. He is an example of preservation by any means necessary
Okay, I’m afraid of being buried in a coffin, six feet under. What if I wake up?
I don’t want to be burned to ashes. What if I wake up?
Composting honestly sounds the least frightening to me.
Hell, just dump me in a hole out back and put up a marker that might last a couple decades.
Have your heirs plant some Bellis perennis and soon you will be pushing up daisies.
No issue with this. And no it won’t carry any more human disease than regular soil. Before we had coffins, this is what happened naturally with burials.
Also, this doesn’t seem much different to me than cremation where a body is burned. How is this a disrespect for life because it is treated slower and cultivated? They sell urns right now that you can bury and a tree grows out of the cremains. It seems like a beautiful sentiment.
https://www.thelivingurn.com/collections/urns
I’m more freaked out by the idea of embalming a corpse and putting it in a watertight casket, to be honest.
How about 2 55 gallon welded together to drop the body in, fill with sawdust. Allow it to sit until the drums rust out.
The funereal industry prey on people’s grief, there are a lot of unsavory people in the industry.
Why not freezing pending future reanimation? Just think you could freeze your dead father in flavored ice- a true pops-icle.
Pauper’s graves or mass burial pits.
The Irish immigrants suffered the fate.
As a life-long gardener and farmer, I don’t see this methods of dealing with remains as particularly horrifying or callous. The described composting method is just a way to speed up the natural decomposition of what remains after the soul is gone, similar to what humans have been doing with the dead for 10,000 years.
Those bones aren’t going to decompose in 30 days, however, so presumably they will run them through a grinder, in which case the relatives will get back a nice humus and bone meal combo, just right for the roses.
I think they should start with Sen. Whitehouse. Intellectually, he is already fully composted.
A while back there was talk of freezing- with liquid nitrogen, then shaking the frozen corpsicle until it was powder, then thawing and dehydrating. The leftover powder could be mixed with soil.
That or composting works for me. Cremation not much.
Composting sounds like it takes a lot of energy
I’d prefer burial at sea.
Why not just go back to pinewood coffins? Skip the embalming and go au naturel.
Why wait until they are dead? Just plant folks in the ground, feed them using funnels, then harvest them to make your famous Smoked Meats, ala “Motel Hell”?
Or you could choose a happy medium. Wait until they are brain dead and make them president, feed them chocolate pudding for four years, then harvest them to make a psycho, ala Bates Motel.
Instead of “make a psycho, ala Bates Motel.” I meant to say, “make them lie in bed with Norman Bates mother, ala Bates Motel.
Why not opt for the Tower of Silence or dakhma option? Places like New York have a lot of towers and roof space available. Stick the dead bodies on the roof tops, let the birds have at it, then return the excarnated remains to the family.
Somehow I think the Left will have a culturally inappropriate response to that suggestion! 😛
Post death ceremonies and traditions are for the living, not the dead. It makes us feel better about our own inevitable demise if we feel we’ve properly respected the dead that went before us.
The whole “preserve the body and bury it in a concrete box so it will last hundreds of years” thing seems pretty macabre to me.
I’ve always been of the “dig a hole and bury me in the backyard” kind of mindset. Ashes to ashes. Earth to earth. Dust to dust. That way my body completes the natural cycle of life and provides nutrients for other living things to use. What does a dried up, chemically preserved body in a concrete box do? I’m a Christian and I believe in the Rapture, but I don’t believe that God is so weak that He needs my physical corpse to do it.
Composting the body is basically the same thing as burying it in a hole, just quicker. I don’t see the problem.
I’m not George Washington or Alexander Graham Bell…in a couple of generations no one will even remember who I was. That’s OK, I’m not vain enough to care. That’s life. The vast, vast majority of people aren’t remembered except maybe as a data point in the family genealogy; and, again, after I’m dead, I won’t care. If my religion is correct, I’ll be in a better place beyond the cares of this world. If it’s not, I just won’t “be” any more at all.
Either way, I won’t care what happens to the vessel I used to occupy, I won’t be using it any more.
I actually think the composting idea and then spreading the resulting material in the woods of the remote mountain property my wife and I own is a wonderful idea. I love that woods and I’d be ecstatic for my final act to be providing the creatures that live there with sustenance.
Cycle of life.
But I’d need to talk to my wife and kids about it. Make sure they’re OK with that because, after all, funeral ceremonies and burial rites are for the living, not the dead.
That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it, but it’s far from universally held.
I’m not a fan of the idea, but it seems to me a lot better than cremation. Since the Roman Catholic Church now (albeit reluctantly) accepts cremation, I don’t see how it can object to this idea.
I’ve always loved a big, raging bonfire. I think some native American tribes had/have it right… build a funeral pyre and drag in a few peace pipes (or kegs of beer) and let my friends throw me one last rager.
Sheldon Whitehouse may have finally found his life-calling and purpose for existence, human composting.