I was driving around town today and saw a firetruck in the parking lot of a funeral home with its lights flashing. Now I couldn't see if the building was actually on fire or not, but I started thinking. If a funeral home catches fire, do they "rescue" the dead bodies? Should we ask firefighters to risk their lives to save some dead guys? And what if the body is going to be cremated? Wouldn't it be more efficient, and cheaper for the family, to leave the body inside? Just a thought.
Friday, April 27, 2007
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2 comments:
I think you treat a dead body like you would a treasured family photo album.
Assuming there are no valuable organs to be harvested from the deceased, the two are roughly equivalent: they are mostly valueless objects save for a "sentimental" component, and you shouldn't risk a man's life for that.
My quaint logic goes out the window if you believe - sort of like Antigone - that there's something sacred or sacrosanct about the funeral itself. Maybe you even go further (like the ancient Egyptians) and say that protecting and preserving the body is a matter of eternal bliss or suffering; in that case you have a much trickier dilemma.
But I think this situation is simpler than that: salvage what you can, get the hell out of there, and let the dead become dust.
That's...horrible Toomey.
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