What Should You Do After You Die?

One possible factor leading to the rising number of those choosing cremation, aside from a drastic difference in cost, is that the public can now be informed of what goes on with embalming. People realize that once they’re embalmed, there is only a vestige of actual human remains left: just a bag of chemical-filled skin, void of all blood, internal organs, and natural skin texture. Why would you want to see a loved one covered in “Suntone” or wearing “just the wrong shade of lipstick” (pp. 258, 262)4 as your final image of them, rather than fondly remembering them the way they looked? What good could come of the beautification of something that will soon be hidden from sight and left to decompose?

The mortician’s “restorative art” attempts to manipulate a corpse into looking natural, but the result tends to make the corpse so “life-like” that it becomes unnatural and looks more like a doll. The action of embalming, automatically done in the U.S. and still largely unregulated, can be construed as an obsession with maintaining an air of beauty, even after death. So few people question the practice of embalming that it is done without asking the survivors whether they want it done or not.

Embalming can be useful in manipulating a corpse into looking the way the person did in life before something such as an illness disfigured them beyond the way survivors fondly remember the deceased looking. In a case where the family wants an open casket, but wants to see the deceased appear as closely as possible to the way they did before the grip of death, embalming becomes a useful practice — despite the doll-like appearance after the procedure.

Though embalming has a practical purpose, it should be more widely and uniformly regulated, rather than allowing morticians to play as plastic surgeons on the deceased. Information on the process involved in embalming, as well as the processes for other options, such as cremation, should be readily available to those making decisions about a funeral service. Patrons need to be educated about what they are spending their money on. This sharing of information will make people more capable of making informed decisions on how they want their loved ones or themselves to be dealt with after death. Many people are frightened by the thought of death, and how their body will be treated after death — perhaps knowing all the options would decrease people’s fears and worries about the cost inflicted on those that would be left behind.