alt Hacker NewsYou may be getting downvoted because this is a bit of a rant, but I agree with you. Chemical embalming and sealed caskets aren't for the dead, they're for the living who don't want to think of their loved one decomposing in the ground. Funeral homes sell the illusion that they can somehow prevent that. Unfortunately, what happens to an embalmed body is equally gruesome, just slower and with added poison. Personally I'd rather let the worms recycle me into a nice shrub or something.
Replies
One of the things you will learn after spending some time in the poorest parts of the developing world where the local cultural/religious practices don't do cremation, is that in many places, there is no equivalent of a "funeral home" or professional services for such. Each family is responsible for preparing the body of their relative and arranging for the burial themselves. It's a very visceral, in your face, hands on experience that people can't and won't do in western "developed" countries. Thus the standard practice of basically, doing quick prep on the deceased, getting them into a white cotton sheet (or local cultural equivalent) and buried quickly.
The solution for not decomposing is called cremation.