- I think being directly involved in the death process would be deeply unsettling and uncomfortable. I know I am not prepared to death with a loss of an important person in my life, so I don’t know how I would deal with the aftermath and the process of the body. However, if the deceased had wanted me to be there for the cremation process, i would do it. Also, I agree with Doughty’s assertion that this is the most emotionally healthy way of disposing of the body of a loved one. To see them once at a hospital before cremation, or to see their highly made up embalmed body at a funeral are very unnatural ways of saying goodbye. To be there when they are sent off by pushing the button at a crematorium or to process their body at your own home is a good way to confront your emotional distress over the loss, and you can come to terms with your own mortality.
- Dougherty is very concerned with making people more comfortable with death. Most people in our culture do not want to confront their own mortality. This is why funeral homes are so popular, because people can send their loved one’s bodies to a place where everything is taken care of for them. When embalmed, they only have to see the body after it’s heavily made up and almost lifelike. After cremation, the body is transformed into ashes in a little pot that removes all aspects of the image of death. The family usually isn’t even there for the cremation process, which Daughtery remarks is odd, because even though she is the only one sending this person off, as she didn’t even know them in life. Dougherty thinks that if people get more involved in the process of burial, they would be less uncomfortable when faced with death. If people are less sensitive to mortality, it’s easier to face death in people’s lives. They give the example of ISIS using beheading videos to spread fear. If people were more uncomfortable with death in its ‘natural state’, with the person having died from natural causes and family members taking care of the body, we would be less terrified when confronted with violent deaths. We could also better address other uncomfortable topics surrounding death, like the suicide epidemic, and we would be better able to help instead of largely ignoring uncomfortable topics.
- My opinion has been reinforced by learning more about embalming, cremation, and fast food production. I was already distrustful of these industries, and now I have more information to back up my opinions. In Pollan’s work, I was unsurprised by all the chemicals in the chicken nuggets. I have been exposed to a lot of information about how chicken nuggets are prepared. They’re made to last for long stretches of time, easily transportable, they’re not made to be nutritionally beneficial. Chicken nuggets are also unethical for the chickens and the humans involved in the process of production, so it’s not just the ingredients that make chicken nuggets a shady business. However, I was surprised by how much of the ingredients in fast food are derived from corn. Most of the ingredients include corn sugar, from salad dressing to hamburger buns. I was aware of corn syrups like hydrogenated corn syrup and the abundance of this ingredient in food products, but I was not aware of the scope. America’s corn obsession is not only unhelpful to our waistline, but to the earth as well. It is exceedingly environmentally damaging to use so much land for corn production, as well as the land for housing all the animals that the corn feeds.
In regards to the embalming process, I was already aware that I wouldn’t want this process done to me personally. I was not surprised when Mitford described how ‘the blood is drained out through the veins and replaced by embalming fluid pumped in through the arteries’ (Mitford 46). Most of the internal working is replaced with chemicals. This is incredibly environmentally destructive, as the chemicals leach into the soil after the body decomposes. Embalming is just another way a person can harm the environment, even after they’re dead. I was surprised to learn how non-Americans view this practice. It makes the process seem even stranger through the eyes of other cultures. It must be very strange to pay so much money and put so much work into making a person look alive, just to see them for a few minutes and then immediately put them into the earth. All that work, just to preserve the memory of the deceased for the sake of the family members.
In the interview with Doughty, I was not surprised to head how working with death as a mortician can take a toll on your psyche. Every day, you are surrounded with sorrow and mortality. Life must seem very grim. Doughty describes how it’s important to emotionally step away from the job, as to not get swept up in existential crisis. She explains how practicing self care helps, how yoga, writing, and therapists can improve your mental state. I was not surprised at her argument that if people are more accustomed to death in it’s natural state, we will be less uncomfortable with death as a whole. I think Doughty has a strong argument for this. We would benefit from being able to confront death. Emotionally, it is easier to gain closure when we see a deceased loved one off personally and naturally, not the fake made-up body from embalming. She also mentions that if we could confront natural death, we would be able to handle violent deaths more easily. Problems like suicide or mass shooting could be addressed properly if the fear of death was lessened.
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