Flushing the Dead Away

Rather than bury or cremate dead people, a Scottish company recommends disposing of human remains by dissolving them in toxic chemicals and flushing them down the toilet.

According to Sandy Sullivan, director of Resomation, makers of the Resomator, the machine which turns human remains into flushable material, "(People) like the environmental benefits and the thought of going the water route, as opposed to burial or fire."

Despite the fact that I recoil at anything which would make Adolph Hitler salivate, I'm puzzled regarding how humans can possibly revere their dead, one characteristic that separates homo sapiens from the rest of the animal kingdom. I contend that a memorial plaque on the toilet would be disrespectful.

Of course, any discussion of the human soul would be moot if the final resting place is a toilet followed by a sewage treatment plant. Not only that and even more troubling, just how much of a leap is it to begin processing the human remains for nutritional value, turning them into an edible product. Recycling taken to the extreme, eh? It could be given a nice ecological name -- maybe "something . . . something Green."

Source1, Source2