Content warning: This episode contains frank discussion of death and of various forms of body disposal, which some might find distressing.
Sarah Carter-Walshaw, Lecturer in Applied and Inter-Disciplinary Ethics at IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds, has been thinking about the ethics of what happens to us after we die. The problem is that the current most popular methods of body disposal - cremation and burial, aren't very environmentally friendly. The good news is that other, greener methods are available. The bad news is that, so far at least, these haven’t really caught on. In this conversation we discuss why not, as well as the ethical question of whether we have an obligation to consider these forms of body disposal for ourselves.
Sarah is holding a virtual workshop on body disposal ethics at IDEA: The Ethics Centre, University of Leeds on 9 July 2026. Register for free here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/4RXPASJpiW.
Further Reading:
Balonier, AK, Parsons, E, & Patterson, A. The unnaturalness of natural burials: dispossessing the dispossessed. Mortality. 24(2), pp.212–230
Rieder, TN & Bernstein, J. 2020. The Case of ‘Contributory Ethics’: Or How to Think about Individual Morality in a Time of Global Problems. Ethics, Policy & Environment. 23(3), pp.299-319.
Schafer, C (2012) Corpses, conflict and insignificance? A critical analysis of post-mortem practices. Mortality. 17(4), pp.305-321.
Schwenkenbecher, A. 2014. Is there an obligation to reduce one’s individual carbon footprint? Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 17(2), pp.168-188.
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