Socios
LeINTOn

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The “modern western” solution?

By Adem Ozoor

new plan for the fate of people’s

corpses entered into the processes
of debate. The plan is to basically
dissolve corpses in a caustic solution
and flush the remains down the drain.
Eventually, the flushed corpses would
be recycled at water treatment plants.

The reason people are looking
to implement this form of “corpse
disposal” is to conserve land that is
increasingly being used up by graves.
At the same time, cremating one
corpse releases over five hundred
pounds of pollution, which is very
harmful to the environment. The

E Belgium earlier this year, a

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concept of corpse-flushing is in
some ways environmentally friendly,
positively land-conserving, yet in a
lot of other ways, creepy.

Firstly, look at this issue from
a religious perspective. Cremation,
which is now seen as commonplace
in western societies, has sparked
controversies among religious people.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that the
churches will refute the concept of
corpse-flushing as being sinful.

As for land conservation, it is
certainly an interesting idea. Belgium
is inarguably one of the smallest
countries in the world. As the years
pass, and more people die, eventually
the entire country will be covered in

graveyards. There needs to be some
sort of solution to conserve the land.
It is just to say that corpse flushing is
a potential solution to this issue, but
perhaps, it’s not necessarily the right
one.

Consent is another aspect of the
issue that will need to be closely
observed. It’s understandable if an
individual decides to give consent to
having their corpse flushed; however,
it may spark controversy in their
family if it’s a religious one. If cases
such as this start happening regularly,
pretty soon there will be families in
conflict with the law.

Another thing that will need
to be examined is time. It would

 

undoubtedly take a lot of time, in
fact years, for people not only in
Belgium, but across Europe to accept
this matter. If this corpse-flushing
phenomenon is approved by the EU,
it will be used throughout Europe.
Are the Christian societies ready for
this?

Overall, this is a case that is
still in the debate process. In the far
future, when the planet is extremely
overpopulated with humans and
land is very scarce, this may actually
become the norm. When people die,
they will have their bodies flushed.
Perhaps, burying the dead and having
a “funeral” will one day be a thing of
the past.