I've always thought that the whole culture of funerals and death here in the US was, well, weird. A big fuss is made over the person's dead body, filling it with preservatives and chemicals and making it look "natural" and displaying it in a fancy, expensive box... then putting it into the ground and erecting a permanent marker over it, with the expectation that it would be there forever and forever.
I guess if that's what you and your family want, then that's fine. But it seems very wrong for me personally. I just don't see the practicality and the acceptance of death, here. It's as if we were people who have no hope, who are relying on elaborate rituals to somehow appease the departed person or to ensure their empty shell remaining around just in case... in case what? It's just weird to me. I also suppose that I don't care what anyone does with my empty shell when I'm gone, but if it were up to me, I'd say cremation was the most logical and practical thing. And if you simply must keep some sort of token of me, why not do the LifeGem thing? It's beautiful, it takes up little space, and it's a permanent thing. And if you needed to sell it for extra cash someday, you wouldn't have to mention what it was made from, because it's completely real. See, I could be valuable to you even after I'm gone!
But that's just me. I'm just not that attached to physical remains. They aren't the person, and they're not worth the fuss. Of course, in the event of an actual death of someone close to me, I'll defer to those who do attach importance to it, and I'll keep quiet in order to maintain social expectations... unless someone asks my personal opinion.
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