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From the very beginning of humanity, we have held the dead in high regard. We revered them, burying them with treasures like jewels and gold. We constructed grand mausoleums and carved intricate headstones to ensure our memories of them would endure. Art in the form of paintings and statues has immortalized them, allowing us to keep them close in spirit. In fact, there was a time when it was even lawful to preserve the body of a loved one at home.
But what if someone passes away without the comfort of family or friends? With no one to mourn them, they may be forgotten—but not entirely. Here are 10 ways the departed can still leave a lasting impact on the world after their death.
10. Organ Donation
Every year, thousands of individuals are added to organ transplant waiting lists. Tragically, an average of 20 people die each day while waiting for an organ, due to the shortage of available organs.
From hearts to livers and kidneys, several vital organs in the human body can be replaced. Typically, a single donor can provide enough organs to help as many as eight individuals. Even corneal transplants are possible.
A simple way to reduce these numbers is to sign an organ donor card or tick the organ donation box on your driver’s license. After someone passes, doctors can retrieve the necessary organs, allowing the deceased to help the living and continue their legacy.
9. Last Will and Testament
In ancient Egypt, personal belongings were buried with the deceased. Native Americans, on the other hand, burned the possessions of the deceased on funeral pyres. Vikings placed fallen warriors along with their belongings and even a dog into a longboat, setting it ablaze before pushing it out to sea. The belief was that the warrior could use their possessions in the afterlife, with the dog serving as a companion on the journey.
A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that outlines how an individual’s belongings should be distributed after their death. It can become a crucial document, with the concept dating back to figures like George Washington in the United States.
As society progressed, individuals accumulated more and more possessions, including works of art, jewelry, collectibles, and financial assets like money or bonds. This made it increasingly difficult to determine who would inherit which items.
There are countless stories of family members turning against one another over a painting or a piece of land. While a will can reduce the chances of such conflict, it doesn’t guarantee an end to family disputes, though it often lessens the severity.
8. Body Farms
The origins of forensics can be traced back thousands of years, with the first use of fingerprinting in 1892. However, fingerprinting was only the beginning. Today, forensics covers the investigation of any death related to a crime. The challenge lies in: How do you learn this specialized form of investigation?
This is where body farms come in. The first one was established near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1971. It's a research facility dedicated to studying how human bodies decompose under various conditions. Corpses are left in open fields, swampy areas, buried in artificial bogs, and even hung in trees.
The different rates of decomposition observed in bodies within the same environment can indicate that the deaths occurred under different circumstances. These rates are recorded and used to better understand causes of death.
Most of the bodies used in these studies are “John Does” or “Jane Does”—unidentified individuals whose remains were never claimed. However, it is also legal to donate one’s body to a college operating a body farm. As of early 2018, there are seven body farms in operation across the United States, with the most recent one opening in Florida in 2017.
7. Medical Schools
While the creation of a Frankenstein’s monster is not being suggested, using human remains for medical school research is a widely accepted teaching method. Whether future doctors are learning about the effects of accidents, poisoning, aging, or disease, dissecting an actual human body provides far more insight than books or medical journals can offer.
Unclaimed bodies can be donated to medical schools, although it’s more common for cadavers to come from individuals who have chosen to donate their bodies to science. If you were passionate about finding a cure for a specific disease during your life, you can request that your body be used in research focused on that particular condition.
6. Fertility Clinics
Most couples eventually want to have children. When natural conception doesn’t work, they may turn to in vitro fertilization (IVF). In IVF, sperm is collected from the partner and combined in a petri dish with a few eggs from the female partner and a growth medium.
The dish is then placed in an incubator, hoping that one or more eggs will become fertilized. If successful, the fertilized eggs are transferred into the woman’s uterus, and the pregnancy progresses from there.
Sometimes, fate intervenes and disrupts the plans. Either the man or woman may find out that a medical issue is preventing the pregnancy from succeeding. Conditions like cancer, hormonal imbalances, sexually transmitted diseases, and other factors can prevent women from becoming pregnant. However, hope is not lost.
Volunteers can donate eggs or sperm to help couples hoping to have children. Sometimes, these donations come from individuals facing death. A woman suffering from cancer might choose to donate her eggs, hoping that her child will be born in the future.
A man might donate sperm while awaiting an organ transplant to save his life. If he doesn’t survive, his wife or girlfriend may use the sperm to have his child later on. This way, even those nearing the end of their lives can help create new life.
5. Stem Cell Research
Stem cells were first identified in 1978 within the cord blood of a human embryo. There are various types of stem cells, with the most well-known being embryonic stem cells.
Embryonic stem cells have the unique ability to divide and transform into any cell type in the human body. This remarkable capability makes them potential tools for repairing damaged cells within the body.
In 2012, scientists found that stem cells could still be extracted from the muscle tissue of a human corpse up to 17 days after death. It's possible that stem cells could survive even longer, but further research is necessary. Individuals can donate their bodies to science and specifically request that their stem cells be collected for research purposes.
4. Mediums and Seances
This is a matter of personal belief. When someone passes away, some people think the soul lingers for a while. Whether due to unfinished business or the soul not realizing its death, grieving individuals may turn to mediums to try and communicate with the departed. Former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, for example, invited multiple mediums to the White House to contact her young son Willie, who had died of typhoid fever.
One of the most renowned critics of the spiritual realm was magician Harry Houdini. Early in his career, he even staged fake seances. However, after his mother passed away, Houdini became consumed with the desire to contact her, sparking his campaign against fraudulent mediums and seances.
On his deathbed in 1926, Houdini told his wife that if possible, he would attempt to contact her from the afterlife. Every Halloween, seances are held across the United States in hopes of reaching him, but so far, they have all been unsuccessful. Houdini remains silent.
In contrast, there is the story of Kate and Margaret Fox. In the 1800s, they held the first seance ever reported. The two sisters developed a system of table knocks to convey answers to questions posed to spirits. They invited neighbors and friends to attend their seances, and many were amazed by the apparent authenticity of the responses.
3. Trying to Get A-Head
This sounds like something straight out of science fiction. In 1959, Russian scientist Vladimir Demikhov removed the head of a terrier dog and kept it alive for days using a blood circulation pump. The head was able to hear, taste, and smell things, seemingly responding to its environment.
Subsequently, Demikhov transplanted the head and front legs of one dog onto a larger dog. Since then, similar experiments have been carried out on dogs, monkeys, mice, and rats.
As a potential method for aiding patients in regaining movement after a spinal cord injury, scientists are now exploring the possibility of a human head transplant. Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has set his sights on performing the first human head transplant in 2018, with the assistance of a Chinese volunteer.
While many doctors remain doubtful about the viability of such a procedure, Canavero claims he is just months away from publishing research that will validate his theory. And where will the new body come from? A donor, just like with organ transplants. This could be one of the most bizarre ways the deceased may one day assist the living.
2. Life Insurance Policies
The idea of life insurance dates back to ancient Romans. Around 100 BC, a Roman military leader named Caius Marius introduced the concept of a funeral association. If one of his soldiers died unexpectedly, the surviving comrades would contribute funds to cover the funeral expenses of the fallen.
The Romans believed that anyone who was not properly buried would return as an unhappy ghost to haunt the living. These funeral societies gained popularity with the government, as they saw the burial of all individuals as a fundamental right.
Over time, the concept of providing financial support to the families of fallen soldiers emerged, ensuring that their wives and children were also taken care of. However, when the Roman Empire collapsed, the idea of life insurance vanished for a period.
The idea resurfaced in the 1680s when a group of underwriters established Lloyd’s Coffee House in London, a meeting place for shipowners, captains, and merchants to exchange shipping news. This coffee house later evolved into Lloyd’s of London, the institution that insures items such as Bruce Springsteen’s voice.
Life insurance policies saw a surge in popularity after World War I. By the time the Great Depression began in 1929, more than 120 million policies were active. The economic boom after World War II further contributed to the rise in life insurance sales.
By the mid-1970s, nearly 75 percent of all adults in the United States and around 90 percent of married couples held some form of life insurance. However, following economic downturns, only 44 percent of U.S. households had individual life insurance policies by 2013, marking a 50-year low.
1. Natural Resources
In the United States, the majority of deceased individuals are either buried in concrete-encased graves or cremated. The remains of those who are cremated are typically placed in urns, which are often housed in mausoleums above the ground. (Occasionally, the body is placed directly in the mausoleum, bypassing cremation altogether.)
In the past, wooden coffins used to bury the dead were vulnerable to water infiltration, pests, and decay. Before coffins became standard, bodies were simply stacked in open pits. If no preservation methods were employed, these bodies slowly decomposed, becoming part of the soil over time, much like how ancient bodies have contributed to the planet’s oil reserves.
In the not-too-distant future, there may be alternative methods available. Cremation ashes or even entire bodies are now being used to cultivate trees, enriching the Earth’s natural resources while also reducing the land needed for expanding cemeteries.
The ashes of the deceased are placed in a special urn that also contains a mixture of planting soil, nutrients, and a seedling from the individual’s favorite tree. The urn is then buried in the ground, where it is watered and exposed to sunlight, allowing the seedling to grow into a tree.
Still in development is the “Capsula Mundi,” a large egg-shaped container designed to hold a human body and serve as a nurturing vessel for a tree’s growth. A person can purchase this burial capsule and select a tree to accompany them in their final resting place.
After death, the body is placed into the capsule and buried with the selected seedling resting against its top. The body then becomes sustenance for the tree’s growth. If an apple tree seedling was chosen, generations later, descendants can harvest apples from the tree that grew from their loved one’s remains.
