[ppi] [ppiindia] Swedes Freeze-Dried for Eternal Rest

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            Tuesday, 27, September, 2005 (23, Sha`ban, 1426)


                  Swedes Freeze-Dried for Eternal Rest
                  Sven Nordenstam, Reuters 
                    
                  STOCKHOLM, 27 September 2005 - "There's three things we can 
do with your mum. We can bury her, burn her, or dump her." A fourth alternative 
- freeze-drying - could soon be added to British comedy group Monty Python's 
catalogue of burial methods.

                  Next year the Swedish town of Jonkoping hopes to pioneer this 
novel way of preparing people for their final resting place. The body will be 
frozen, dipped in liquid nitrogen and pulverized prior to burial.

                  Most Swedes choose cremation, but that method was only 
approved after a heated debate in the Lutheran Swedish Church about 100 years 
ago. Clerics are more open to new methods of burial nowadays, said Archbishop 
K.G. Hammar.

                  "This method could prove more environmentally friendly than 
cremation. It is hard to argue against it on ethical grounds, as cold and heat 
should be the same thing," he told Reuters.

                  Susanne Wiigh-Masak, the biologist who conceived the method, 
has patented it in 35 countries. "The interest is colossal. It's almost easier 
to say that it's only Antarctica that hasn't called," she said.

                  This year, Wiigh-Masak has been to the Netherlands, Britain, 
Germany and South Africa to promote her self-financed idea.

                  "I have worked with this project for seven years, but 
official Sweden is largely unaware of the enormous potential this has as an 
export product," she said.

                  After a cold liquid nitrogen bath, the now brittle body is 
shattered to a powder, which is dried and stripped of metal parts such as 
mercury dental fillings.

                  The powder is put in a biodegradable coffin made out of corn 
starch and buried in a shallow grave, since the traditional burial six feet 
(1.8 m) under means it takes longer for the body to decompose enough to be 
absorbed into the life cycle.

                  Wiigh-Masak's method means remains are converted into soil 
within six to 12 months, giving nutrients to the plants above.

                  "A bush or tree can be planted above the coffin ... The 
compost formed can then be taken up by the plant ... The plant stands as a 
symbol of the person, and we understand where the body went," Wiigh-Masak's 
company Promessa says on its website, www.promessa.se, describing the process 
as an ecological burial.

                  Wiigh-Masak herself said she wished to have a Cunningham's 
White, a type of Rhododendron, planted on her grave.

                  Thousands of Swedes have already said they would prefer 
freeze-drying to existing burial methods, Wiigh-Masak said, adding that bodies 
of seven people were already kept on ice in Sweden awaiting further treatment.

                  "It has been so important to some people that they couldn't 
accept anything else," she said. People from other European countries, Canada 
and the United States were also interested, she added.

                  Fonus, the Nordic region's largest undertaker, was initially 
positive about the concept but has since raised several questions about 
ethical, economic and environmental aspects of the method, company spokesman 
Ake Palmgren said.

                  According to Promessa, a "light vibration" would shatter the 
body, but Palmgren said "very strong force" would be required to remove dental 
fillings.

                  "We have to ask ourselves if this is compatible with the 
respect with which we want to treat our deceased," he said.

                  Sweden's biggest crematoriums already filter their smoke to 
prevent toxic mercury emissions, he added.

                  Palmgren said Fonus also wanted to know whether animals such 
as rodents could reach the shallowly interred human remains.

                  "Isn't there a risk that our cemeteries will become a big 
feeding ground for all kinds of animals?" he asked.

                  Environmental scientist Morgan Froling at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, who is researching the environmental impact of 
abattoir waste disposal, said that so far he had heard no scientifically valid 
arguments why freeze-drying would be environmentally superior to other burial 
methods.

                  "Once you scratch the surface, every argument is of dubious 
value," he said.

                  If approved by authorities - the law on burials has to be 
changed and its environmental impact evaluated - freeze-drying could be 
launched in Jonkoping as a burial option next year, local council spokesman 
Lennart Angselius said.
                 
           
     


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