When you think about your own funeral, what do you imagine? Gushing eulogies and handpicked music aside, it’s likely to follow one of two paths – cremation or burial. The Corpse Project wants to change that.
“We listen, we research, we hope to catalyse change,” project chair Sophie Churchill told WIRED. “We focus on the body, the corpse, with intersections into the wider death debate.”
The Corpse Project wants to provide the public with better information about dead, as well as the science behind decomposition, so we can “make better choices” about what happens to us after we die.
To do this, they’ve conducted a set of research into the way we think about our bodies after death and how that relates to the way we identify in life.
There are implications to death that extend beyond the personal – the disposal of bodies for example, which has a significant environmental impact. Demand for “natural” burials have increased in recent years, but the Corpse Project believes people need a “better understanding of the science behind environmentally-friendly funeral options” in order to make an informed choice.
Cremation, for example, actually has a lower carbon impact than natural burial, despite assumptions. “Mourners' travel is a major factor,” Churchill said – there are fewer burial grounds than there are crematoria so the distance travelled is typically greater. In one analysis, which used an average distance of 40km to a field burial site and 20km to a crematorium, natural burial had “double the carbon burden of cremation”.
Scattering ashes also “harms plant life rather than helping it”, Churchill continued.
“Cremated ashes are mostly ground bone,” she said. “They’re rich in calcium phosphate, but this is ‘locked up’ by the cremation process and doesn’t release easily into the soil. Studies of cremated animal remains showed cremate was high in sodium, which formed a chalky, salty layer that wasn’t beneficial to plants.”
What we should be doing instead, Churchill believes, is supporting innovation and good practice in the funeral industry, as well as further researching the impact the body has environmentally.
“Most of us don’t know much about how the body decomposes, whether it does return to the natural cycle of the earth through burial or as ashes, and the options for its care and treatment after death,” she explained.
Despite the number of deaths globally every year, experts still know relatively little about how the human body decays and decomposes, which has led to the growth of ‘body farms.’
Bodies, or ‘inmates’, are donated to human taphonomy facilities, with their decomposition studied to learn more about forensic science. They can reveal if bodies decompose differently underwater, in an air-tight box and if the body is clothed, naked or in a plastic bag.
The US is pioneering the research, and there are currently six functioning facilities across the country. A site is expected to open in Sydney this year, and India is also looking to open one in the near future.
Human decomposition is complex and highly susceptible to changes in ambient temperature, local climate and conditions. Officially known as autolysis, it begins several minutes after death – once the heart stops beating, cells become deprived of oxygen and their acidity increases.
Enzymes digest the membranes around these cells before leaking out as the cells break down. This eventually causes body temperature to drop before rigor mortis kicks in.
Each of the sites in the US provide its own ‘pattern of decomposition’. Bodies at the dry and hot Texas state facility decompose differently to those at the Fox Valley College in freezing Wisconsin, for example. All of this affects how experts estimate the time that has passed since the person died.
Experts also use the ‘inmates’ to study chemical and bacterial changes in rotting bodies, and to train ‘human detection’ dogs.
Europe has been reluctant to open similar sites, though there are several university-based taphonomy facilities studying decomposition of pigs as an alternative.
Death and Identity
Another area the Corpse Project is hoping to look at is the way a transgender identity can change the way we think about bodies after death. It has teamed up with Gendered Intelligence, a community interest group that delivers arts programmes to young transgender people, to create what they call a ‘Transfesto’.
The Transfesto calls for increased trans awareness in the burial industry, so trans-friendly practices can be put into place. This can include details such as ensuring that chosen genders, pronouns or names are used during funeral services and burials, and “an exploration of ways to make end-of-life paperwork and processes more trans-inclusive, including removing unnecessary questions about gender”.
Many trans, gender non-conforming and non-binary people are misgendered during their life, and research from the Corpse Project and Gendered Intelligence found many trans and non-binary people are “concerned they could be misgendered in death as relatives, officials, or funeral industry professionals might refuse to respect their wishes or be unaware of how to provide trans-inclusive services.”
“In life, trans people must often fight hard to defend their gender and bring their identity and their body into alignment. We wanted to know about the issues they face with the body in death, and where changes could be made to support them at the end of life,” said Churchill.
“There are many people working in the funeral industry who are deeply committed to respecting the rights and wishes of individuals and who are open to new traditions and technologies. As the way we die changes we must make sure trans voices are part of the conversation.”
Morgan Potts, a member of trans health collective the Dysphoria Collective, said trans people must “constantly self-advocate in life” – and, too, in death.
“For those of us with the privilege to plan for our futures instead of just our immediate survival, there is always a worry for us that our corpses will not be respected in death,” Potts said. “Living trans bodies are the site of so much violence. We want to ease the suffering of trans people in death, in the hopes that it will ease the worry of living trans people and show our society at large that trans people are deserving of respect.”
The Future of Burial
So what should we be doing with our bodies after death?
One option is ‘dissolving’. Though the name may conjure up images of baths full of acid, dissolving the body in liquid alkaline solution – or ‘resomation’ to give it its proper name – may actually be a more environmentally-friendly way of disposing of bodies.
Bodies are placed in a chamber filled with water and lye before being heated at high pressure. The body is “broken down into its chemical components” until it separates into mulchy liquid and crushed bone remains. The liquid can then be returned to the earth, either through composting in a green space or, in a potentially less romantic move, via sewers.
Shallow burial, which is also gaining popularity, may also be an option, and Churchill said it may become more common in the future. Shallow burial essentially removes many of the ‘unnatural’ elements of the traditional burial process, such as embalming fluids and non-biodegradable coffins, to allow the body to more naturally decompose into the earth. A shallow grave itself also lends itself to the same kind of microbial activity that’s present in composting.
“Public knowledge about the body after death is low, but there is an unmet interest in finding out more, and an openness to new technologies such as resomation or composting,” added Churchill. “We operate in a diverse society. We don’t want to push one approach more than others.”
“But better options could help us all face the ends of our lives and the strangeness of death.”