Way To Go

From the Daily Mail, an emollient newspaper for those who like to keep their blood pressure low: 

The BBC came under fire today for a new sitcom which makes light of assisted suicide.

A new series starring Blake Harrison, of the Inbetweeners, tells the story of three young men who build a suicide machine and offer the ‘service’ to those who wish to end their lives.

But a prominent Tory MP expressed his disgust at the programme’s premise, slamming it for turning suicide into a joke.

Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, told the Sunday Express: ‘It is a sad fact that assisted dying is now regarded as a ‘revenue stream’ to some foreign clinics and clearly as a matter of fun by some parts of the BBC.’

Tea, cakes, death and a movie

The Natural Death Centre Charity proudly presents:

The NDC Death Café

Film Event

2.30pm – 5pm

Sunday 24 February 2013

London NW2 6AA

(near Willesden Green underground station)

Suggested donation : £5  

 

As part of this Death Café, young documentary filmmaker Olivia Humphreys will show her 20 minute film  Noctuaries. Josefine Speyer, psychotherapist and co-founder of the Natural Death Centre, will host the event.

Come and join us for a free flowing conversation around the topic of dying, death and bereavement. Whilst sitting comfortably in a relaxed setting, drink tea and eat delicious cake or sandwiches and enjoy an open, respectful and confidential space for discussion, free of discrimination where people can express their views safely.

To participate, please email a note to Josefine at josefine@josefinespeyer.com with your name and phone number and how you heard about the event. She’ll send you an email to confirm your place. Thanks!

Filmmaker Biography:

Olivia Humphreys is a documentary filmmaker and writer based in London, and recently completed a Masters in Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths. Her graduation film won the Royal Television Society award for Best Postgraduate Factual Film and the Best Documentary award at Exposures Film Festival. Her films have been screened in over forty festivals worldwide.

Synopsis:

“In the ten years since my mother’s death, my family and I have had frequent, vivid and profoundly moving dreams about her. ‘Noctuaries’ looks at how each of us has responded to these dreams, and how they have formed part of our grieving.”

The Natural Death Centre (Registered Charity
 Number 1091396) needs your support. It relies entirely on donations and book sales. Established in 1991, it is a social, entrepreneurial, educational charity that gives free, impartial advice on all aspects of dying, bereavement and consumer rights, including family-organised and environmentally friendly funerals. It runs a helpline and sells the new Natural Death Handbook.

www.naturaldeath.org.uk

www.deathcafe.com

Death lit

The Natural Death Centre now has its own online e-magazine. Aimed at consumers, it has features which will also interest funeral directors and celebrants. There’s a straight-talking  feature about natural burial, an analysis of the rise of direct cremation, some radical talk about open-air cremation, a caveat emptor article for funeral shoppers by Jon Underwood, the Death Café man (there’s something about them, too), plus all sorts of other goodies. 

Download it, free, and find out for yourself. 

If you like it, email it to a friend. 

Click the link here

I never met a raven I didn’t like

Dr. Berndt Heinrich, 72, emeritus biology professor at the University of Vermont, spends much of his time in a cabin in the woods with no electricity or running water, studying animals. His latest book, “Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death”, is about how animals die and how they recycle each other:

It’s not so much about death as life. The carcass provides a huge amount of concentrated food for the animals who are recyclers.

I first started thinking about it when a former student, Bill, wrote saying he was terminally ill and what would I think about his having a “sky burial” on my property in Maine? He wanted to leave his body to the ravens. Bill did not want to be cremated or buried in a sealed box. He wanted to be recycled and have his body provide food for other creatures.

Does that name Bill ring any distant bells? No? It ought to. Bill Jordan? Still not with it? Okay, you give in. You first read about him here, on this blog, in May 2011, when he broached his (some would say eccentric) desire that his remains ‘return to the living molecular plasma that the surface of the earth nurtures and maintains. Consequently, I am almost obsessed with having my corpse laid out upon the surface, to fulfill the needs of the natural world. I am attaching a short musing on the subject.Do go back and read it; it’s one of the best things we have ever published.

Dr Heinrich addresses the bad reputation enjoyed by scavenger species, vultures and ravens particularly. He says ‘It’s because of their association with death — they are blamed for it. Ravens get blamed a lot for killing a lot of things when, in fact, they mostly eat the dead and the nearly dead. It’s an illogical association that comes from a lack of understanding of what these animals do. Consider what would happen in the ocean if nothing ate the dead fish. Eventually, the ocean would be up to the top with dead fish. If there were no recyclers, nature would stop.’ He adds: ‘Ravens are very appealing. I’ve never met a raven I didn’t like.’

There’s an insight here into the public perception of undertakers. 

Interesting isn’t it that of all species, humans go out of their way to avoid being recycled in this way? 

Read more about Dr Heinrich in the New York Times here

The Good Funeral Guide
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