There is not much to enjoy in a layer of inorganic human…

“Dead people look very, very dead. It is difficult to grasp what that means, since it’s unlikely that any of us will stumble across…

— Caitlin Doughty

“The most salacious stories—bones ground in a metal blender or torture-spike eye caps—had the power to disrupt people’s polite complacency about death. Rather than…

— Caitlin Doughty

“We do not (and will not) have the resources to properly care for our increasing elderly population, yet we insist on medical intervention to…

— Caitlin Doughty

“He explained that he talks about death "all the time" with his friends. They ask each other, "Hey, what you want when you die?"…

— Caitlin Doughty

“Many children and grandchildren of immigrants, have, like Sarah, found themselves severed from their family’s cultural rituals. The funeral system in the United States…

— Caitlin Doughty

“I have come to believe that the merits of a death custom are not based on mathematics (e.g., 36.7 percent a "barbarous act"), but…

— Caitlin Doughty

“It was death that the public was being cheated out of by the funeral industry, not money. The realistic interaction with death and the…

— Caitlin Doughty

“Exposing a young child to the realities of love and death is far less dangerous than exposing them to the lie of the happy…

— Caitlin Doughty

“Rather than let author and environmentalist Edward Abbey be buried in a traditional cemetery, his friends stole his body, wrapped it in a sleeping…

— Caitlin Doughty

“The ICU was not the thrill ride I had expected. Turns out, they never called the high school student in from the reception desk…

— Caitlin Doughty

“Death should be known. Known as a difficult mental, physical, and emotional process, respected and feared for what it is.”

— Caitlin Doughty

“Untreated, a dead person’s face looks horrific, at least by our very narrow cultural expectations. Their droopy, open eyes cloud over in a vacant…

— Caitlin Doughty

“It is worth noting that the main players in the recomposition project are women—scientists, anthropologists, lawyers, architects. Educated women, who have the privilege to…

— Caitlin Doughty

“Death might appear to destroy the meaning in our lives, but in fact it is the very source of our creativity. As Kafka said,…

— Caitlin Doughty

“As a general rule, if anyone ever asks you to put stockings on a ninety-year-old deceased Romanian woman with edema, your answer should be…

— Caitlin Doughty