No funeral money? What to do By Geoff Williams, U.S. News & World Report (May 30, 2013) What’s worse than dying? Maybe dying broke. It has been a while since an unclaimed-dead-bodies-continue-to-be-a-problem story appeared in the news. Within weeks of the Death Reference Desk launching in July 2009 (four more years! four more years!) we […]
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Texas Prisoner Burials Are a Gentle Touch in a Punitive System Manny Fernandez, New York Times (January 05, 2012) At a cemetery in Texas, murderers and other convicts whose bodies are unclaimed can be interred and, for a few moments, remembered. Here’s a really interesting article on the cemetery used by Texas prison officials. These […]
Under Recent Policy, Cook County Begins Donating Unclaimed Bodies after 2 Weeks Cadavers that are left in morgue are given to medical research Becky Schlikerman, William Lee and Ronnie Reese, Chicago Tribune (October 04, 2011) Medical Examiner: Families Who Object to Body Donation Can Opt for Burial Becky Schlikerman, Chicago Tribune (October 05, 2011) […]
Artist’s Study of Island Brings the Dead to Life Adam Geller, Associated Press (October 30, 2010) Hart Island Project Melinda Hunt This is a really compelling article about a New York burial ground for unclaimed bodies. Adam Geller, from the Associated Press, wrote a lengthy piece about both Hart Island (the cemetery) and artist […]
Detroit finds dignity in death Poppy Harlow, CNNMoney.com (November 16, 2009) This article is a few weeks old so it isn’t breaking news. That said, I just noticed the video and watched it. The images of all the unclaimed bodies stacked up in the morgue freezer is a tragedy. I’ve been covering the unclaimed body […]
Indigent Burials Are on the Rise Katie Zezima, The New York Times (October 11, 2009) Regular readers of the Death Reference Desk will recognize that the nationwide increase in indigent burials is a significant trend. Since this summer, when Death Ref launched, we have routinely posted articles on the uptick in unclaimed dead bodies under […]
Detroit: Too broke to bury their dead Poppy Harlow, CNNMoney.com (October 1, 2009) This CNN story on Detroit is heartbreaking. The economic situation in Detroit is horrible enough, but this particular dispatch says more about the financial straits of life and death than anything I have seen. Over the summer, the New York Times ran […]
Death in the Recession: More Bodies Left Unburied Alison Stateman, Time Magazine (August 07, 2009) News stories about unclaimed dead bodies, accumulating in morgues across America, continue to pop up. Death Ref Librarian Kim found this one and I decided to post it. What makes this particular Time article slightly different than the other articles […]
More bodies go unclaimed as families can’t afford funeral costs Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times (July 21, 2009) This LA Times article (sent to me by my friend Karyn) is a sad and predictable explanation of how the American economic recession is affecting the poor. In a nutshell, next of kin do not have the […]
Donate Your Brain, Save a Buck Gary Stix, Scientific American (January 4, 2011) Hard times are making tissue donation more appealing The Great Recession changed the way many people live—and its repercussions appear to be altering how some people choose to die. At least two prominent tissue banks have seen an increase in the number […]
FTC Proposes New Guidelines for Collecting Debt from Dead People Ylan Q. Mui, The Washington Post (November 22, 2010) The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to revise the protocol surrounding two of life’s touchiest subjects: debt and death. Are Cemeteries the New Safe Investment? Patrick Collinson, The Guardian (October 16, 2010) With a shortage […]
At the Hour of Our Death Sarah Sudhoff Our worldly possessions speak to how we live, while their particular aesthetics — the whorl of this cushion, the filigree of that doily — hint at personality. In her series, At the Hour of Our Death, artist Sarah Sudhoff explores how our stuff reveals how we die, […]