As reported in The Guardian and other news outlets, France Telecom is experiencing a rash of suicides that began in the beginning of 2008. Since that time, there have been 24 suicides and 13 attempted suicides among the company’s 100,000 employees. The cause? Work stress. You can also listen to the full story on today’s All Things Considered.
Stress-related deaths are nothing new. In Japan, the country has seen an increase in incidents of karoshi, which literally translates to “death from overwork.” However, karoshi differs from stress-related suicide in that the manner of death is attributed to heart attack or stroke. Government and business leaders have begun to acknowledge, albeit slowly, the problems associated with over-working and have started to implement programs that strive to achieve more of a work/life balance.
Last August John wrote about crematoriums in England capturing the heat generated during cremations and recycling it to warm the building. The Taipei Second Funeral Parlor in Taiwan is taking a similar approach, this time transforming the heat into electricity and using it to run its newly installed air conditioners.
These kinds of stories can’t help but be quirky (I’m looking at you, cow dung cremations). We’ve got death and its taboos with understandable, squeamish backlash — or as Taipei City Councilor Chuang Ruei-hsiung remarks, “I admire the city government for having such a creative idea, but for family members, it is just creepy to have air conditioning generated from burning bodies.”
Thank you, Mr. Chuang.
But here we also have wonderfully inventive ideas that challenge our cultural norms and promote environmentally sound solutions. …Or is that all a bunch of greenwash hogwash, an eco-spin meant to shut up opposition and all their silly, impractical emotions in favor of efficiency and science? Though the article doesn’t say, I wonder whether recycled cremation heat is cheaper than other sources. While you wouldn’t think offending, much less traumatizing, the already bereaved would be a line crossed lightly, when that line is the bottom line, people are definitely willing to go there.
Personally I find it a little weird, but I’m not opposed to it, either. I just question the real motivation behind these developments — not to mention where such things lead. Need I remind that Soylent Green is people?
Okay, kidding. Sort of. Maybe, hope so. Nonetheless, if any death studies students out there are looking for a thesis topic, this would be an interesting area to explore.
As the New York Times reports, more than a million people per year suffer an “extreme form of grieving” following the death of a loved one — an anguishing bereavement that lasts more than six months after a death. The condition, known as complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder, has spurred its own methods of therapy and is under consideration for inclusion in the DSM-V, the standard for diagnosing mental disorders, due out in 2012.
Schumer also summarizes a 2008 study in the journal NeuroImage (linked above), which looked at the brain activity of people suffering from complicated grief:
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Mary-Frances O’Connor, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that when patients with complicated grief looked at pictures of their loved ones, the nucleus accumbens — the part of the brain associated with rewards or longing — lighted up. It showed significantly less activity in people who experienced more normal patterns of grieving. …
The nucleus accumbens is associated with other kinds of longing — for alcohol and drugs — and is more dense in the neurotransmitter dopamine than in serotonin. That raises two interesting questions: Could memories of a loved one have addictive qualities in some people? And might there be a more effective treatment for this kind of suffering than the usual antidepressants, whose target is serotonin?
Last week in England, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, released new guidelines on assisted dying. The goal of these new guidelines is to give family members a clearer understanding of what is acceptable before the law when assisting a loved one to die. As the law currently stands in England and Wales, assisting another person’s suicide is against the law. I discussed what caused these new guidelines here.
Here, then, are the guidelines (which are not laws) which will be used to evaluate whether or not compassion was the guiding principal behind the assistance:
The public interest factors against a prosecution include that:
The victim had a clear, settled and informed wish to commit suicide;
The victim indicated unequivocally to the suspect that he or she wished to commit suicide;
The victim asked personally on his or her own initiative for the assistance of the suspect;
The victim had a terminal illness or a severe and incurable physical disability or a severe degenerative physical condition from which there was no possibility of recovery;
The suspect was wholly motivated by compassion;
The suspect was the spouse, partner or a close relative or a close personal friend of the victim, within the context of a long-term and supportive relationship;
The actions of the suspect, although sufficient to come within the definition of the offence, were of only minor assistance or influence, or the assistance which the suspect provided was as a consequence of their usual lawful employment.
It was interesting to read the different press reactions to the guidelines.
Here in Portland, OR, one of the largest hand-painted murals in the United States is being dedicated tomorrow—and it’s on the side of a mausoleum—in my neighborhood!
The 50,000 square foot hand-painted wildlife mural on the side of Wilhelm’s Portland Memorial Funeral Home is being dedicated tomorrow, Friday, October 2 and will include a rooftop tour as part of the ceremonies. On Saturday, October 3, the Audubon Society of Portland will lead a hike through Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge for an up-close look at the mural.
A Geek Funeral
kdawson, Slashdot.org (September 29, 2009)
While the obsessively geekerrific can always go for the deluxe Star Trek casket or urn, I rather enjoy this gutted SPARCstation-turned-urn engraved with classic Trekkie nerdery, submitted to Slashdot by reader Sam_In_The Hills for his late brother:
At the memorial service, friends and family scrawled kind thoughts and remembrances on Post-it notes and slid them into the floppy drive of this circa 1990 machine. BRA-VO.
I also couldn’t help but notice that Slashdot uses the tag “geekurn.” I am sad to report it’s the only item tagged as such — but the precedence has now been set. Don’t let us down, Slashdot.
Ongoing floods and a subsequent depletion of mango trees, the traditional cremation fuel for the people of Bihar, India, has led to the use of cow dung in funeral pyres. Readily available and culturally acceptable (coming from a sacred animal, and all), the practice is gaining social acceptance and is even touted as environmentally friendly — no more laying to waste swaths of scarce mango groves only to light them afire.
The cow dung process takes an hour and a half compared to the usual 3–4 hours and is also considerably cheaper. A cow dung cremation will run you $6–$8, compared to the traditional mango tree sendoff at $62–$83. (Average cremation cost in the US: about $1500–$4000.)
Come to think of it, this is so obvious and sensible the fact that cow dung has entered into the cremation equation hardly seems worth mentioning at all. In other words, is this really that shocking and gross? I don’t know — I don’t think so. I do wonder, though, the real extent to which the practice has been embraced — and not just seen as a necessity or an option bright-sided (it’s efficient! it’s green!) out of desperation.
According to the Today show’s Q&A, the Awareness During Resuscitation study — AWARE for short — is investigating “what happens to the human mind and consciousness during clinical death and the relationship between consciousness and the brain.” The hope is improved research will inform better resuscitation practices — though I suspect it’s also attempting to lasso the afterlife moon. As the video shows, part of the experiment involves putting a sign on a shelf high above hospital beds with the idea that astral travelers will see it and be able to relay messages once resuscitated. Shout backs, anyone?
Though I find this less than rigorous, the research protocol has been peer reviewed, as will be the results, and the study also uses technology to measure the flow of blood to the brain for a more technical analysis of what the heck is going on during and after death.
…And I suppose it would be pretty cool if someone, floating above his or her dead body and the heads of the doctors and nurses as is often reported, reads and relays the message of the sign. But assuming this study will not prove the existence of an afterlife, I’m just as jazzed to know we have such amazing, imaginative, immersive-experience minds.
We at DeathRef will keep our eyes skinned on this one.
Oh Gunther von Hagens, you are the gift that just keeps on giving and giving and giving to the Death Reference Desk. But this time, dearest Dr. von Hagens, you have truly achieved a pop-cultural milestone. None other than Stephen Colbert, he of The Colbert Report and clearly deserving namesake of a new wing on the International Space Station, dedicated two whole minutes to discussing your plastinated bodies posed in sexual positions.
But it is safe to say, I think, that achieving a two minute commentary from the one and only Stephen Colbert means that you, yes you GUNTHER VON HAGENS, have arrived. Now, the only question is when you will finally jump the shark…but that is a different pop-cultural discussion for another time.
Until then Herr Professor Doktor von Hagens, mull over these wise words from Stephen Colbert himself:
This major breakthrough ends one of science’s enduring mysteries: what does it look like when zombies do it?
Indeed…
(special thanks to my book editor’s assistant for sending me the Colbert link…that’s just how I roll…Thanks Beth!!!)
Cyber Cemetery. The University of North Texas, along with the GPO, are the crypt keepers of this depository for the digitally deceased.
As a librarian and archivist, I find this to be an important and worthwhile project. The ephemeral nature of the Internet makes it a constantly moving target, fleet of foot, seemingly larger than the planet itself and inherently impossible to capture — at least in total. But, if someone is going to attempt to archive portions of the Internet, then taking on the US government is certainly a worthy subject. It supports the case for government transparency, which as we know, may be intentionally elusive. Of course accountability isn’t the only reason we should be capturing the data. The preservation of these and other websites is a “best practice” as far as I’m concerned — but then again, I’m a librarian.
There are other places on the web that attempt to capture snapshots of dead websites, like the Wayback Machine — now known as the Internet Archive. But the Cyber Cemetery is the only one of its kind specifically dedicated to government sites. Our digital past is relatively young in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully these digital graveyards, like brick and mortar libraries, will live on as important historical archives and storehouses for our collective memory.
Death Reference Desk technical guru Meg posted an article on the newest planned exhibition by German anatomist and showman, Gunther von Hagens. This would be Gunther von Hagens of Body Worlds fame. The article discusses von Hagens’ plans to exhibit dead bodies posed in sexual positions.
There is a fascinating backstory to this corpse-a-palooza sex show and it all begins in 2006….
In August of that year, NPR featured a report by Neda Ulaby on Gunther von Hagens. You can listen to that interview by clicking on the link at the top of the page. On the whole, the report is about the Body Worlds phenomena sweeping America during that summer.
Then, as if by MAGIC, intrepid reporter Neda Ulaby drops this dead body bomb:
Recently, [Gunther von Hagens] sent a questionnaire to 6,500 people who he says have agreed to donate their bodies to him after death. They were asked a number of provocative questions. For example, would they consent to their body parts being mixed with an animal’s, to create a mythological creature? Would they agree to be “transformed into an act of love with a woman or a man?” Von Hagens says that on the sex question, the majority of men liked the idea, while the women did not.
Talk about burying the lead…or burying something. Wowza: that double entendre works on a number of levels.
But it is all true. Gunther von Hagens plans on fusing dead animals and dead humans together (because, of course, humans aren’t animals….) to create Mythological Creatures. Or, as one former student once proclaimed: “You mean like centaurs and stuff.” Yes yes. I do mean centaurs and stuff.
But the magic doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Von Hagens was clearly making plans to pose dead bodies in sexual positions by at least 2006 (if not earlier). Well, actually, von Hagens says “…transformed into an act of love…” and when you listen to the NPR report, it’s really creepy sounding.
Thus began my own personal obsession with tracking every new exhibition by von Hagens to see when he would finally, finally show dead bodies having sex. It seemed fairly obvious that von Hagens would create this exhibition since I GUARANTEE that it (meaning dead bodies doing it) will make MORE MONEY than any of von Hagens other shows. And that is saying a lot, since Body Worlds recorded its 28th million visitor in July 2009. The mythological creatures will most certainly appear at some point but only after a small mint is made with the corpse sex.
And so it has all come to pass. On May 7, 2009, Gunther von Hagens opened a new Body Worlds exhibition in Berlin, Germany (the Berlin link is gone so I am using a Zurich, Switzerland link). In one section of the exhibition, entitled Cycle of Life, von Hagens placed two different pairs of bodies having sex on display. In a statement released by von Hagens, he explains that the exhibit “offers a deep understanding of the human body, the biology of reproduction, and the nature of sexuality.”
He is also making it clear on the Body Worlds website that he wants to bring the copulating corpses to London. I know. The Brits will beat down the door to see it. Here is the full “look out London, here we come” pitch by von Hagens.
At least at the end he wished everyone best wishes.
Sadly, the London Body Worlds exhibition closed at the end of August. The last time I checked, von Hagens never did move the dead bodies having sex to the O2 bubble. But rest assured, I will keep track of this situation for one and all.
And what would this post on dead bodies having sex be WITHOUT at least a short video clip from YouTube. This gem is entitled Copulating Corpses from from Von Hagen[s] Exhibition and it features an awesome song by the band Evanesence.
Plastination inventor and all-around evil-weird genius Gunther von Hagens is at it again — and by “it” I mean pushing the boundaries of most noxious, notorious controversy… and by “pushing” I mean thrusting, by “boundary” I mean vaginas, and by “controversy,” if you haven’t guessed, I mean dead, skinless bodies having sex.
Body Worlds has already sparked fiery condemnation for their display of one cadaver couple in love’s embrace (reverse cowboy style) for its “Cycle of Life” show (see a few photos here… um, probably NSFW? Who knows). The plan is to produce a new show entirely dedicated to sex — not as an inside-out Kama Sutra diorama of death, as cynics might believe, but to depict “anatomy and the function,” says creative director Angelina Whalley (also von Hagens’ wife) in an interview with Reuters.
I wonder, though, how many copulating corpses can be shown before it ceases to be educational and tends toward, you know, pornographic and creepy. DeathRefer John Troyer penned an essay about this very possibility (in terms of illuminating theory, no doubt) for a forthcoming anthology. Drat copyright and its meddlesome restraints! We’ll post a citation when it’s available.
The Body Sex Worlds will presumably make the museum circuit, maybe even in shopping malls like its rival, Bodies: the Exhibition. And perhaps therein lies the motivation — to edge out the competition with more artful effects and outrage. After fourteen years of touring, your traveling corpse road show becomes a one-trick pony show. Hey, now there’s an idea… errr, no no, just kidding. Please.
You may have noticed that I said “vaginas” above with no mention of anal boundaries: Somehow it’s imagined that the scandal compounds when the corpses involved are homosexual — or at least von Hagens is sensitive to this “very delicate subject.”
Oh whatever, Mister. Is he really that concerned about society’s ability to “handle it”? Or are dead men having sex merely being reserved to fill the coffers for the next round? And perhaps his not being gay prevents him from feeling he can depict it properly and respectfully.
Then again, he isn’t dead, either — and that hasn’t stopped him in the least.
Cyber Cemetery. The University of North Texas, along with the GPO, are the crypt keepers of this depository for the digitally deceased.
