Soylent Green

[ambush80]

Could you imagine a circumstance where repurposing human remains for nutritional purposes would be acceptable?

How about in some kind of space colony, either travelling through space or on some barren planet? Astronauts recycle their pee.

NASA just recycled 98% of all astronaut pee and sweat on the ISS (engineers are thrilled)

Yes, the achievement hinges on better recycling tech for astronaut pee.

www.space.com

Is there a moral argument against extracting bio resources from human remains for the purposes of consumption? How about as fertilizer?

 

[oldfella1962]

Could you imagine a circumstance where repurposing human remains for nutritional purposes would be acceptable?

How about in some kind of space colony, either travelling through space or on some barren planet? Astronauts recycle their pee.

NASA just recycled 98% of all astronaut pee and sweat on the ISS (engineers are thrilled)

Yes, the achievement hinges on better recycling tech for astronaut pee.

www.space.com

Is there a moral argument against extracting bio resources from human remains for the purposes of consumption? How about as fertilizer?

Interesting question! I never thought about it. I guess if there was no danger of some kind of communicable illness/disease/condition being transferred I wouldn't be opposed to it per se, but I'm not enthused about either. I say this because I think I read something once about an incurable "mad cow disease" type of thing that some tribe of cannibals used to get. I definitely don't see the problem with using human remains as fertilizer.

 

[Nicodemus]

No. I have more respect for the dead than that.

 

[ambush80]

Interesting question! I never thought about it. I guess if there was no danger of some kind of communicable illness/disease/condition being transferred I wouldn't be opposed to it per se, but I'm not enthused about either. I say this because I think I read something once about an incurable "mad cow disease" type of thing that some tribe of cannibals used to get. I definitely don't see the problem with using human remains as fertilizer.

They got "laughing sickness" from eating the brains. It's a prion disease like mad cow or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease or Chronic Wasting disease in deer.

I would imagine that they would break the body down chemically to extract useful compounds (like dirt and worms do), then use them for various applications. When I'm dead, I don't care what they do with my meat.

 

[Lukikus2]

Here we go again!

 

[ambush80]

Here we go again!

Was this discussed already? I must have missed it.

 

[Danuwoa]

That was a really stupid movie.

 

[ambush80]

Interesting question! I never thought about it. I guess if there was no danger of some kind of communicable illness/disease/condition being transferred I wouldn't be opposed to it per se, but I'm not enthused about either. I say this because I think I read something once about an incurable "mad cow disease" type of thing that some tribe of cannibals used to get. I definitely don't see the problem with using human remains as fertilizer.

Fertilizer seems like a natural and morally neutral purpose. On a spaceship they might not be using dirt, so they would probably turn a body into nutrients for hydroponic growing.

 

[ambush80]

That was a really stupid movie.

Well said.

 

[oldfella1962]

They got "laughing sickness" from eating the brains. It's a prion disease like mad cow or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease or Chronic Wasting disease in deer.

I would imagine that they would break the body down chemically to extract useful compounds (like dirt and worms do), then use them for various applications. When I'm dead, I don't care what they do with my meat.

yep - that's what I read about - "laughing sickness".

 

[livinoutdoors]

I would say naw. If you cant make it through space without eatin folks then maybe you need to build things better for ya take off. Just sayin.

 

[Artfuldodger]

Fertilizer seems like a natural and morally neutral purpose. On a spaceship they might not be using dirt, so they would probably turn a body into nutrients for hydroponic growing.

I think some folks now choose to be buried in the root ball of a tree and the tree brings forth life from their death.

 

[oldfella1962]

I think some folks now choose to be buried in the root ball of a tree and the tree brings forth life from their death.

Great idea! Nature benefits directly, and it beats paying big bucks for a fancy coffin that will be dug up, recycled and sold to another customer while your body is dumped in the woods while the funeral company says "oops we lost all the burial records!" if anybody investigates them.
Or as I like to call it "Tuesday".

 

[ambush80]

I think some folks now choose to be buried in the root ball of a tree and the tree brings forth life from their death.

Why not under the tomatoes?

Great idea! Nature benefits directly, and it beats paying big bucks for a fancy coffin that will be dug up, recycled and sold to another customer while your body is dumped in the woods while the funeral company says "oops we lost all the burial records!" if anybody investigates them.
Or as I like to call it "Tuesday".

I read about a cemetery that buries you without any chemicals put in your body. It's in a natural surrounding that they preserve. They bury you with a small tracking chip so that visitors can find your location with a GPS device.

 

[ambush80]

I would say naw. If you cant make it through space without eatin folks then maybe you need to build things better for ya take off. Just sayin.

When you put a body in the ground and it turns back to its constituent elements, at what point does it stop being a "folks"?

 

[1eyefishing]

I heard the taste varies from person to person...

 

[bullethead]

I don't care if the wife/kids bury me or cremate me, but I told them that if I'm buried to put me in a Pine box so I can return to the soil. In 5 years go there, pick a few nightcrawlers and take me fishing. If they cremate me, use me as buffer in a handful of shotshells for a pheasant hunt or turkey hunt.
If by that time tossing me under the garden is an acceptable way to help the tomatoes, then go for it. Although salsa with a hint of kielbasa might not be all that good.

 

[Lilly001]

I’ve thought about my cremated remain being dumped into the headwaters of a trout stream to help counteract acid rain.
But I don’t know if it would really help.
My family has gone the cremation route for the last couple generations. I’ve got lots of kin on the closet shelf while we try to figure out what to do.

 

[WaltL1]

I think some folks now choose to be buried in the root ball of a tree and the tree brings forth life from their death.

I like that. At least you get to serve a useful purpose instead of just taking up real estate.

 

[Wanderlust]

I told my wife she could spread my ashes on my food plot.
Then the deer could eat me.
Don't think she thought that funny.