Archive for the ‘Death + the Economy’ Category
Donating Dead Bodies to Save Money
20, Feb 2011Donating Body Can Save Families Money Dan McFeely, The Indianapolis Star (February 08, 2011) A short post on a perennial topic for the Death Reference Desk: how the dead body is transformed into some kind of cash value. Rarely, if ever, does this postmortem value involve direct cash exchanges, mostly because the law frowns upon [...]
- By: John
- In: Death + the Economy|Death + the Law|Death Ethics
- Tags: bioethics, funerals, medicine
Brain$…Brain$…Brain$
16, Jan 2011Donate 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 [...]
- By: John
- In: Death + Technology|Death + the Economy
- Tags: bioethics, funerals
“Body Fishing Up Ahead”
13, Dec 2010This story has affected me in a way that many others about death have not. The complete and utter sense of tragedy permeating it is hard to shake and the mental imagery conjured up while reading it is the stuff of nightmares. In what has got to be one of the more grim and disturbing [...]
- By: Kim
- In: Death + the Economy|Death Ethics
- Tags: body fisherman, China
Coffin Making: Now with Barcodes and Touch Screens
10, Dec 2010Bringing the Coffin Industry Back From the Dead How barcodes and touch screens are resuscitating a casket factory Ben Austen, The Atlantic (December 2010) Modern, industrial casket making is a manufacturing business like any other, but for the fact that most people never think about modern, industrial casket making. The above article in The Atlantic [...]
- By: John
- In: Death + Technology|Death + the Economy|Funeral Industry
- Tags: coffins, funerals
Bring Out Your Dead Checkbook
1, Dec 2010FTC 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 of [...]
- By: John
- In: Cemeteries|Death + the Economy|Death + the Law
- Tags: foreclosure, insurance