it’s that question that i’m considering. i don’t think anyone would be too pleased about stumbling onto a corpse. on the other hand if i just disappear then there isn’t a good closure for some of those left behind. i’d like to leave the bits and pieces to medicine and science but i’m afraid that if i stray too near a hospital that i might be found out too quickly. on the other end of the spectrum if i find a place too well disguised then an advanced state of decay could set in before being found and that seems unnecessarily unpleasant for the finder. i don’t have anyone in mind for the finding. it’s seems more of a practical matter. i feel like there should be a clear answer but i don’t yet know it.
depends on how you’re choosing to exit … (without going into detail) … and who you might be concerned might find said corpse. i had a friend that found her brother had used a shotgun around xmas time … she is still traumatized by that image decades later … conversely i was with a friend who found his deceased parent (natural causes) and it was a relatively peaceful scene, no lasting trauma.
my thinking is – if you’re still concerned with doing some good for your fellow man in donating your body – you could arguable find better things to do while still alive that would accomplish similar goals on a more ongoing basis. It really depends on what is more important – your death, protecting loved ones or helping others … not sure there is a perfect answer that covers all three issues equally an equitably … again, depending on the method, some aspects of those issues you have to just hope for the best because there is no perfect answer or placement
This topic always seems to conjure images from “back to the future,” and doc brown’s crazy morning time automated wake-up invention shown at the beginning of the movie.
I wish i could invent some sort of… automated, life-ending, mess-cleaning, corpse-packaging “device,” so that the entire event could be largely concealed from those it would likely traumatize.
You could just like… tie up all loose-ends, finalize your will, have a nice last day, make a farewell video, and then, in the privacy of your own home (or perhaps some dedicated location designed for such things), “enter the device,” initiate the sequence, and greet your end, and in as peaceful and consistently reliable manner as possible, without leaving any horrific scene or mess for anyone to have to deal with. And all anyone would have to do, is have the appropriate service dispose of the packaged remains, according to whatever method of disposal was authorized.
Also, “suicide booths” like in futurama. I decided to investigate that idea a little further, not long ago, and stumbled upon information about something called “death coaster” (iirc). A roller-coaster designed to cause death by G-force. They’ve actually got a small scale model built.
Barring the availability of better options, i’d probably just opt for “in my bed, in my room.” I’m pretty firm on the “once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter” perspective. While i’m alive to care, such things bother me… but once i’m gone, it won’t. I won’t have to know who feels which ways about what, or how many times they cry about it. I realize that sounds rather callous… which is unfortunate… but according to my experience of this world, that’s just the way things work.
“I’m pretty firm on the “once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter†perspective”
Precisely – granted, i wouldn’t want my family or friends scrubbing grey matter off the ceiling … so if i went that route i’d do it somewhere remotely. but if i was going for a more peaceful exit – in my room will do just fine … everyone will eventually have a less than pleasant encounter with the dead at some point – whether it’s mine or someone else’s doesn’t really matter … it just is … and as you say – when i’m gone … it won’t be my concern … everybody dies … so by suicide or natural causes or illness – there’s always that moment when someone HAS to find the body … one could always try and have that discussion with potential “discoverers” in hope to prep them … but that would probably lay on added guilt since then they’d look back and wonder “how they missed the signs”
I go with my grandfather’s advice – “Take care of number one (yourself) first”
“I’m pretty firm on the ‘once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter’ perspectiveâ€
Good post, daeg. Very nearly exactly what I think. People’s feelings do matter to me now, while I exist. When I don’t exist anymore, well, I won’t exist to have feelings for others, guilt, concerns, regrets, joys, I won’t be able to feel anything. That lack of existence may sound like hell to some people, but compared to the hell I experience now, it’s the peaceful sleep of heaven.
Much of my life I have at least done my best to look out for other people, only to find in the end that when I needed help (except for one friend I still have left) that everyone else looked out for themselves first and I was abandoned. At least at the end I understood this, and will be taking care of what’s necessary for me.
11 comments
On Earth ;D
that’s a good straightforward answer. i wonder about who should have to find my rotting carcass.
Depends, who do you want to find you first? Who do you want to see it?
it’s that question that i’m considering. i don’t think anyone would be too pleased about stumbling onto a corpse. on the other hand if i just disappear then there isn’t a good closure for some of those left behind. i’d like to leave the bits and pieces to medicine and science but i’m afraid that if i stray too near a hospital that i might be found out too quickly. on the other end of the spectrum if i find a place too well disguised then an advanced state of decay could set in before being found and that seems unnecessarily unpleasant for the finder. i don’t have anyone in mind for the finding. it’s seems more of a practical matter. i feel like there should be a clear answer but i don’t yet know it.
Well it seems that you haven’t thought everything through.. so you shouldn’t be so focused on killing yourself just yet.
Deep in the forest where it wont be found
depends on how you’re choosing to exit … (without going into detail) … and who you might be concerned might find said corpse. i had a friend that found her brother had used a shotgun around xmas time … she is still traumatized by that image decades later … conversely i was with a friend who found his deceased parent (natural causes) and it was a relatively peaceful scene, no lasting trauma.
my thinking is – if you’re still concerned with doing some good for your fellow man in donating your body – you could arguable find better things to do while still alive that would accomplish similar goals on a more ongoing basis. It really depends on what is more important – your death, protecting loved ones or helping others … not sure there is a perfect answer that covers all three issues equally an equitably … again, depending on the method, some aspects of those issues you have to just hope for the best because there is no perfect answer or placement
sleuth dawg
This topic always seems to conjure images from “back to the future,” and doc brown’s crazy morning time automated wake-up invention shown at the beginning of the movie.
I wish i could invent some sort of… automated, life-ending, mess-cleaning, corpse-packaging “device,” so that the entire event could be largely concealed from those it would likely traumatize.
You could just like… tie up all loose-ends, finalize your will, have a nice last day, make a farewell video, and then, in the privacy of your own home (or perhaps some dedicated location designed for such things), “enter the device,” initiate the sequence, and greet your end, and in as peaceful and consistently reliable manner as possible, without leaving any horrific scene or mess for anyone to have to deal with. And all anyone would have to do, is have the appropriate service dispose of the packaged remains, according to whatever method of disposal was authorized.
Also, “suicide booths” like in futurama. I decided to investigate that idea a little further, not long ago, and stumbled upon information about something called “death coaster” (iirc). A roller-coaster designed to cause death by G-force. They’ve actually got a small scale model built.
Barring the availability of better options, i’d probably just opt for “in my bed, in my room.” I’m pretty firm on the “once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter” perspective. While i’m alive to care, such things bother me… but once i’m gone, it won’t. I won’t have to know who feels which ways about what, or how many times they cry about it. I realize that sounds rather callous… which is unfortunate… but according to my experience of this world, that’s just the way things work.
“I’m pretty firm on the “once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter†perspective”
Precisely – granted, i wouldn’t want my family or friends scrubbing grey matter off the ceiling … so if i went that route i’d do it somewhere remotely. but if i was going for a more peaceful exit – in my room will do just fine … everyone will eventually have a less than pleasant encounter with the dead at some point – whether it’s mine or someone else’s doesn’t really matter … it just is … and as you say – when i’m gone … it won’t be my concern … everybody dies … so by suicide or natural causes or illness – there’s always that moment when someone HAS to find the body … one could always try and have that discussion with potential “discoverers” in hope to prep them … but that would probably lay on added guilt since then they’d look back and wonder “how they missed the signs”
I go with my grandfather’s advice – “Take care of number one (yourself) first”
walking corpse dawg
“I’m pretty firm on the ‘once i’m gone, people’s feelings don’t matter’ perspectiveâ€
Good post, daeg. Very nearly exactly what I think. People’s feelings do matter to me now, while I exist. When I don’t exist anymore, well, I won’t exist to have feelings for others, guilt, concerns, regrets, joys, I won’t be able to feel anything. That lack of existence may sound like hell to some people, but compared to the hell I experience now, it’s the peaceful sleep of heaven.
Much of my life I have at least done my best to look out for other people, only to find in the end that when I needed help (except for one friend I still have left) that everyone else looked out for themselves first and I was abandoned. At least at the end I understood this, and will be taking care of what’s necessary for me.
Propped up comfy in bed, probably with a “Law and Order” rerun on.