From cradle to compost: the disruptors who want to make death greener

After death, bodies are typically handled in one of two ways: embalmed and buried in a casket, or incinerated and turned into ashes. But both of these options have contributed to the environmental crisis – with fossil fuel-intensive cremation emitting chemicals such as carbon monoxide into the air, and burials taking up large swathes of land.

'Best Care': We Make Death Harder Than It Has To Be

Many people hope to die peacefully at home surrounded by their loved ones, but unfortunately it usually doesn't turn out that way.

'I'm the Doctor Who Is Here to Help You Die'

Why do so many patients have to wait until they’re suffering terribly before they can get relief?

A different way to die: the story of a natural burial

Natural burial is perfectly legal in the United States, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Jake’s friends and family couldn’t just dig a hole on his land in Port Angeles and leave him there to rest — although they did think about it, Tristan says. Natural burial requires a cemetery willing to take the body, which can be difficult to find.

Boom Time for Death Planning

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn new business to start-ups that provide end-of-life services, from estate planning to a final tweet.

Burial is becoming the most boring thing to do with your dead body

Death is more personal(ized) than ever.

Burying Green: Eco-Friendly Death Care On The Rise

Dying, it turns out, isn’t carbon neutral. Like many of the choices we make in our lifetimes, the choice to cremate or preserve our bodies after death comes with tradeoffs as well. With preservation and burial, there’s the carbon cost of cemetery space, the materials to make a coffin, and the chemicals required to prevent decay. With cremation, the body’s carbon is released into the atmosphere through the burning of natural gas.

Compost yourself

Human composting, now legal in six states, is on the rise as an alternative to burial or cremation.

Death Care Is Healthcare: The importance of trans-inclusive deathcare

Trans-inclusive deathcare should be front-and-centre of the healthcare conversation, because everyone deserves to be treated, celebrated and remembered as themselves.

Death is anything but a dying business as private equity cashes in on the $23 billion funeral home industry

Private equity firms are investing in health care from cradle to grave, and in that latter category quite literally. A small but growing percentage of the funeral home industry—and the broader death care market—is being gobbled up by private equity-backed firms attracted by high profit margins, predictable income, and the eventual deaths of tens of millions of baby boomers.

How Boomers Are Planning To Die

We’re seeing the rise of death cafes, green cemeteries, home burials and legislation for medically assisted dying. Death is our last great spiritual experience. We want it to be meaningful, and we want as much control over it as possible.

Human composting could be the future of deathcare

Washington becomes first US state to legalise practice as interest in green burials surges in UK

Katrina Spade: Could our bodies help new life grow after we die?

We compost plants and livestock, so why not humans? Katrina Spade says that if you want to help the planet one last time, consider composting your body.

The Death Business Is Booming—for Now

Providers of funeral services got an unexpected surge when Covid-19 arrived, while life insurers were inundated with claims.

The Fading Art of Preserving the Dead

A dwindling group of professionals is tasked with navigating the often fraught passage from life to death.

The Movement to Bring Death Closer

Home-funeral guides believe that families can benefit from tending to — and spending time with — the bodies of their deceased.

We need to rethink how we manage deathcare

Australia’s deathcare system is already showing cracks, but the pressures will only worsen, especially as the baby boomer generation takes us into ‘peak death’