Treat your online affairs as part of your affairs that need to be in order – your bank, your Internet bill – you need to have people who know what you want. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
I work with a group called Compassion & Choices in California. It’s attempting to get death with dignity legalised in California, the idea being that so goes California, so goes the rest of the U.S., at least. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
If people really knew what they were getting into with their third chemotherapy treatment, or getting a pacemaker when they’re 92, if they really knew what that was going to mean, they might say no, and we should give them that information. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
The biggest problem is the funerals that don’t exist. People call the funeral home, they pick up the body, they mail the ashes to you, no grief, no happiness, no remembrance, no nothing. That happens more often than it doesn’t in the United States. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
The death industry markets caskets and embalming under the rubric of helping bodies look ‘natural,’ but our current death customs are as natural as training majestic creatures like bears and elephants to dance in cute little outfits, or erecting replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Venetian canals in the middle of the harsh American desert. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
I think about death most of the day, every day. We can’t escape death, and choosing to ignore it only makes it more scary. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
Vaults and caskets are not the law; they are the policy of individual cemeteries. Vaults prevent the settling of the dirt around the body, thus making landscaping more uniform and cost effective. As an added bonus, vaults can be customized and sold at a markup. Faux marble? Bronze? Take your pick, family. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
Because we’ve never encountered a decomposing body, we can only assume they are out to get us. It is no wonder there is a cultural fascination with zombies. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
The home funeral – caring for the dead ourselves – changes our relationship to grieving. If you have been married to someone for 50 years, why would you let someone take them away the moment they die? Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
Writing a memoir is such a private, personal experience that it’s intimidating to think of adapting it for television. Caitlin Doughty Read Quote
