It is high time that eschatological deliberations concerning our inevitable Mortexit should question these expensive concepts of death and how they could be managed to satisfy the ethical and ecological requirements of the 21st century.

The disposal of corpses has preoccupied humanity since the times of Noah and has led to the creation of a funereal service industry where the financial interests of morticians, masons and medics supersede those of the dear departed and their relatives. Now is the opportunity for a revolution in the ideology of death with its rich traditions of mumbo-jumbo, sacred rites and jolly festivities

Foremost in alternative thinking, are two new practices for the reduction of cadavers to beneficial compost. The first process places the deceased in a reusable steel container filled with organic material which then enters a chamber where it is exposed to carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen and thermophilic organisms which combine, in humid conditions, to accelerate the usual rate of decomposition. After one month a fine, biologically safe compost is formed ready to regenerate plant life. The second process requires the total immersion of the body in a tank of heated water to which potassium hydroxide is added ; this requires only four hours to reduce the organic material to an equally beneficial mixture ready for burial in a rustic setting. Both of these innovations need only 15% of the energy required for disposal by fiery furnace and emit far less CO2.

Before paying a golden Euro to Charon, one should well consider the methodology of preparing for one-way travel and, hopefully, arrive at the desired destination

Roberto Knight Cavaleiro, Tomar