Quote Originally Posted by CC1
@ Maciamo...just curious? If your wife died today, would you throw her in some ditch somewhere...or would you honor her families wishes?
Unfortunately it's not that simple. In Japan, people legally cannot decide what to do with their body after they die. The law imposes that everyone in Japan MUST be cremated. So, even the 1 million or so Christian Japanese have no right to be buried in a Christian way. People who give their body to science are an exemption, but the unused parts of the body (the "waste") must also be cremated afterwards.

I am not a specialist of these issues in Europe, but in Belgium, apart from giving one's body to science, people can only choose to be buried or cremated, with the body or ashes in a cemetery. In other words, you cannot be buried in your garden or in a forest, and cannot keep your ancestors' ashes at home (as is done in some cultures). You also cannot throw the body in the sea, I think.

Being an atheist, I object to having a religious ceremony, or anything that reminds of it. I also object at being buried in a cemetery, because these are always Christian in Europe, or Buddhist in Japan, i.e. linked to a church or temple, and filled with religious symbols (crosses, etc.).

I would probably give my body to science. I only wish that the remains should not be burnt, and ceratinly not be placed in a cemeterry. Anywhere else in the nature would be fine, anywhere in the world. So I accept that the remains of the body can be buried in the nature, in a common ditch (without any signs or religious symbols on the surface), or thrown in the sea.

As for my wife, I have never asked her, but if her family decides to have a religious ceremony, I won't be there.