What Happens to the Body After Death
Burial, cremation, donation, and newer alternatives each involve different costs, requirements, environmental considerations, and personal choices. Understanding the options can help you decide what best reflects your values, beliefs, circumstances, and wishes.
Your Disposition Options
These are the primary ways a body may be cared for after death. Availability, cost, environmental impact, legal requirements, and local practices vary, so explore each option before making a decision.
Burial & Embalming
Learn about traditional burial, embalming, cemetery requirements, burial containers, and the choices involved in arranging a burial.
Cremation by Fire
Understand how flame cremation works, what it may cost, what arrangements are required, and what happens to the cremated remains afterward.
Water Cremation
Learn how alkaline hydrolysis uses water instead of flame, where it is available, and how its process and environmental impact compare with flame cremation.
Green Burial
Explore burial practices that use simpler materials and fewer resources, including natural and conservation-focused cemetery options.
Natural Organic Reduction
Learn how human composting transforms a body into soil, where the process is available, and what to consider before choosing it.
Donation After Death
Donation can help other people, support medical education, or advance scientific research. Organ and tissue donation and whole-body donation are different processes, so it is important to understand each one separately.
What Should You Consider?
There is no single disposition choice that is right for everyone. Before deciding, consider what matters most to you and whether the option is actually available where the death or disposition will occur.
If you are planning in advance, record your preferences and make sure the people who may be responsible for carrying them out know where to find them.
What Happens After Disposition?
Choosing burial or cremation may lead to additional decisions about where remains will be placed, how they will be memorialized, and who will care for them over time.
Cremated Remains
Explore options for keeping, burying, scattering, transporting, or memorializing cremated remains.
Cemeteries
Learn about cemetery types, burial spaces, rules, costs, long-term care, and questions to ask before choosing a cemetery.
Medical Devices May Need Special Handling
Pacemakers and some other implanted devices may need to be removed before cremation or certain other forms of disposition. Some devices may also be eligible for donation, recycling, or other recovery programs.
If an implanted device is present, tell the funeral provider or disposition facility before arrangements are finalized.
Availability Depends on Where You Live
Some disposition methods are not available in every state or community. Check current state laws and local providers before making firm plans.