It sounds crude to say your dead body is “disposed of,” but disposition is actually the term used by the funeral industry (and the law) to describe the choice you or your family makes for what is done with your corpse.

I think with the exception of a justifiable state of emergency being enforced due to for instance war among countries, everyone in the world should have the legal right to all the below body disposal options and more. Some of the options are also not mutually exclusive:

Transplant donation

Science research donation

• Medical school - for medical education, research and surgical training, and the development and testing of new surgical devices and techniques
• A body farm - for criminal forensics and archaeology research
• Plastination - for anatomical education

Refrigeration

Embalmment

Deep ground burial

Green burial

• Willow casket
• Mushroom suit
• Burial pod

Cremation

• Open air funeral pyre
• Viking burial
• Synthesised into an object like an artificial diamond
• Scattered - e.g. at a favorite beach

Immurement in a tomb or mausoleum

Organic reduction - being composted

Sky burial

• Towers of Silence

Land animal donation at a closed off wildlife reserve

Sea burial

Dissolution - being dissolved in acid or lye

Cryogenically frozen

Mummification

Taxidermy

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To understand the ethical line being drawn, here are some options that I think should stay illegal:

Abandonment - e.g. on the ground where the body could be found, or at a non-closed off wildlife habitat where predators could develop a taste for human meat.

Cannibalism - it's unhealthy and it has negative cultural capital due to other people's fear that it could happen to them, so reduces peoples quality of life.

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Feel free to suggest edits and additions :)

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