Wales has become the first country in the UK to change from an opt-in to an opt-out organ donation scheme. This means presumed consent - you can say that you don't want your organs to be donated, but if you don't state this wish properly, then they will be donated.
It's a system that's worked well elsewhere, and experts hope it will increase the number of organs available to those who need them. But it got us wondering about what we'd like to happen to our mortal remains after we pop our clogs. Death might be a subject we often shy away from, but people have come up with some interesting ideas in the past. Sadly the story about Walt Disney being frozen and part of one of the Disney World rides is apocryphal but it doesn't end there. Whether it's Jeremy Bentham, dissected in public and then preserved at University College London to stare at the students every morning. Or the people who get immortalised as part of the Body Worlds exhibition
It's a system that's worked well elsewhere, and experts hope it will increase the number of organs available to those who need them. But it got us wondering about what we'd like to happen to our mortal remains after we pop our clogs. Death might be a subject we often shy away from, but people have come up with some interesting ideas in the past. Sadly the story about Walt Disney being frozen and part of one of the Disney World rides is apocryphal but it doesn't end there. Whether it's Jeremy Bentham, dissected in public and then preserved at University College London to stare at the students every morning. Or the people who get immortalised as part of the Body Worlds exhibition
1. As much as I'd love to be noble and donate all my organs what I really want is a Viking funeral. I want to be laid out in a long boat filled with Category 4 fireworks (aka the really big impressive ones you get at professional displays), pushed out to sea and have it ignited by long bow. If you've gotta go, you might as well go with a bang! Gareth
2. I have recently decided that I most definitely want a death mask, everyone at my funeral can go home with one! As for my actual body, I've always been one for burying the beloved family cat in the garden and popping a little tree on top so I think, if I have a garden and family to enjoy it, I'd like to be plant food for a weeping willow tree. Squeamish Nicola
3. I am not keen on the idea of organ donation, even though I know it's worthy. This might be because of all of the damage (fun, fun damage) that I have done to my organs over the years. And being blind as a bat, even my eyes are useless. I don't want to get buried, because I don't like the idea of being worm food, even if Hamlet says it's noble. So I will be cremated, which means that all you can really do with me after I die is compress my ashes into carbon and turn me into a diamond. Diamonds are forever, after all - it's my one shot at immortality. F1 Kate
4. I definitely want my organs to be donated, if there are any left that are fit for that purpose. But after that? I like the idea of being included in some piece of art. Body Worlds is a bit passe, darling, but Id willingly donate my bones to someone who could make a sculpture out of them. In fact, I believe I promised Squeamish Kate just that many years ago... Squeamish Louise
5. I want to be taxidermied. I love taxidermy and, once my organs have been donated I want to lie in death as I lived. Stuffed. Squeamish Kate
2. I have recently decided that I most definitely want a death mask, everyone at my funeral can go home with one! As for my actual body, I've always been one for burying the beloved family cat in the garden and popping a little tree on top so I think, if I have a garden and family to enjoy it, I'd like to be plant food for a weeping willow tree. Squeamish Nicola
3. I am not keen on the idea of organ donation, even though I know it's worthy. This might be because of all of the damage (fun, fun damage) that I have done to my organs over the years. And being blind as a bat, even my eyes are useless. I don't want to get buried, because I don't like the idea of being worm food, even if Hamlet says it's noble. So I will be cremated, which means that all you can really do with me after I die is compress my ashes into carbon and turn me into a diamond. Diamonds are forever, after all - it's my one shot at immortality. F1 Kate
4. I definitely want my organs to be donated, if there are any left that are fit for that purpose. But after that? I like the idea of being included in some piece of art. Body Worlds is a bit passe, darling, but Id willingly donate my bones to someone who could make a sculpture out of them. In fact, I believe I promised Squeamish Kate just that many years ago... Squeamish Louise
5. I want to be taxidermied. I love taxidermy and, once my organs have been donated I want to lie in death as I lived. Stuffed. Squeamish Kate
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