The Death Disrupters

Andy Wright on six people who are changing the way we talk about death and the way we die. A death doula "provides a suite of services that includes getting financial affairs in order, making health-care decisions, even identifying the specific sounds and smells clients want at their deathbeds. Arthur also works with her clients’ families, providing support throughout the dying process and helping them wrap up affairs afterward." The Final Exit Network "provides education and support for competent adults suffering from terminal illness, dementia, or chronic or progressive physical disabilities who choose to end their lives." "Recomposition" is a method of burial, "in which bodies are placed in vessels with materials like straw, wood chips, and alfalfa. Tiny microbes that live in the human body go to work, raising the temperature inside and breaking everything down, including teeth and bones. After a month, the result is a rich topsoil that can be returned to the earth. It’s an accelerated version of a natural process, [founder Katrina] Spade says."

Chaplin David W. Peters says,

"People have very strong opinions about what they want their funeral to be like, and Peters encourages them to pick out the hymns and scripture readings they want performed ahead of time. “It helps people prepare for death,” he says, “if they have a say in what happens to them after they die.”

And Deathlab re-imagines the urban cemetery.