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Editorials

Climate change

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g5945 (Published 01 October 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g5945

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Humankind is under the threat of overpopulation. Ongoing deforestation is a major environmental problem worldwide. Food production cannot increase indefinitely without soil depletion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental degradation, which is proportional to the population density.1 Cemeteries occupy space that could be taken by forests or fields. Human cadavers contain proteins and other substances that could be used by the industry. Rationally organized industrial processing of corpses would provide fertilizers, bone-meal, fodder for fish, fur-bearing animals, waterfowl, laboratory animals, microbiological media etc.

Humankind has no moral right to ignore this source of nutrients so long as there is shortage of foodstuffs, especially of protein-rich products. A corpse is a lifeless body that differs from other lifeless bodies as it provokes emotional reactions especially among relatives of the deceased. This makes necessary a speedy, mechanized, completely depersonalizing processing. Moreover, coffins are waste of wood indirectly damaging forests; corpses should be collected from private homes in non-expendable containers, and from mortuaries without them. If, due to local conditions, industrial processing would be uneconomic, cremation or collective interment would be an alternative. Portraits, video- and sound recordings are obviously more adequate as a memory of the deceased compared to the tombs and urns which are in fact fetishes. Acceptance of the compulsory industrial processing of corpses would be a milestone on the way from obscurantism to civilization.

1. Jargin SV. Ethical challenges in an age of overpopulation. S Afr Med J. 2010;100(11):694.

Competing interests: No competing interests

12 January 2015
s Jargin
researcher
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
Clementovski per 6-82, Moscow, Russia