Ever entertained the idea of leaving your body to science? Even if you have, you can scarcely have considered the strange fate of one donated corpse that has just been revealed in the journal Forensic Science International: a donor's body was left in a Texan wilderness so that vultures could scavenge and "skeletonise" it - and distribute the remains far and wide.
I actually have considered that...I read Mary Roach's book "Stiff", which was about many of the ways donated bodies are used, as well as what happens to one's body after death...it was the first I'd heard about the facility in Tennessee that does this same sort of research. There's something I like about the idea of birds (or other animals, or the forest) benefiting from my death :-) In that category of life lessons you remember vividly for the way they alter your world view, when I was a kid hiking with my Dad, we came across a tree that had fallen a long time earlier, and was in an advanced state of decomposition. You could still recognize it as a tree, but could grab a piece of it in your hand and crumble it into dirt. My Dad made us stop and do that...and helped us to understand the "circle of life"...how that tree was feeding bacteria and fungus, millipedes, worms, termites...and would eventually nourish the plants around it, perhaps its own descendants. For me as a young child it was an amazing realization that good soil isn't just "dirt", it's all of the plants and animals (with some minerals thrown in) that went before. Coming across decomposing trees in the woods still makes me think fondly of my Dad...and makes me want to be vulture food myself...
There are so many ways for a body to be used...I haven't quite landed on my favorite. Also important to pick an option your next of kin won't be wigged out about as well.
