She Said/She Said Saturday: Cremation or Donation?

Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we don't but we always debate it on Saturdays! Feel free to add your thoughts!

Devilish Girl:
We all gotta go sometime and how we want to be eternally laid to rest is hugely diverse. Myself, I vacillate between a beautiful casket in a cemetery where people will feel it's fine to steal the flowers my loved ones have left behind to comfort me. Oh, wait. That's a rant for another time. Anyway, I've been giving considerable attention to the idea of not just being an organ donor (which it proudly says on my license!) but to actually give my body to a medical school so that others can learn from my mistakes. I have learned that the bodies are treated with respect -- or at least, that's the party line. But really, will I care at that point? I think not. Maybe they could cremate me after they have done everything they can with the bumbling med students. That would be okay with me. Funerals are just so damn expensive. But if I can't use it when I'm gone, why should I deny the living the possibility of making some advances?

Reaper Girl:
There is no way in hell I want a bunch of strangers staring down at my body. Science can have what's on the inside and that's it. I'm a proud organ donor too, but I draw a personal line at donating to science. I dread the thought of being put in the ground. Personally, I think burial is a waste of space. Headstones are for the living and if my family wants to immortalize me they can carve my name and such into the family wall of the mausoleum. I don't want any part of me to go to the bugs. I want to be cremated and spread out over the sea. Yes, I know that's pollution. Sue me. And even though I'm only in my early thirties, I have all this mapped out. I have a will, a living will and an "I will come back and haunt your ass if these wishes are not met" letter all tucked into a fireproof safe with all my other import documentation. I applaud your wish to help mankind, but I just can't go there.