HW 50 - First Third of Care of the Dead Book Post

Harris, Mark. Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial. New York, NY: Scribner, 2008. 1-40. Print.

Precies:

Jenny johnson was a 18 year old girl who died. Her parents spent numerous fees on her embalming and funeral.There are a lot of environmental issues with embalming someone. After she is embalmed she is placed in a vault for burial The vault is a typical practice done to prevent the land from caving in after a person is buried. Beneath this vault is aBeneath casket. One of Two million that are sold every year. Large industries like this one create a lot of hazardist waste. Casket companies are at the top of the EPAs list of companies who are the most hazardous wasters. Some people chose to go with a more simplistic approach to caring for dead bodies, cremation. Alice Jenson died in a Philadelphia hospital and was taken to the Philadelphia Crematories Incorporation(PCI). PCI processed her body at a fraction of the price of Jenny Johnson's.

Quotes by chapter:

QUOTE #1

"Ushering the couple into the parlor's Hushed receiving room--- harp music surrounding the background, Votive candles burning on a pair of side tables--- Felding doesn't try to console or comfort his new clients."(p.7)

Quote #2

Felding "said die doesn't offer refrigeration because it won't make jenny look 'nearly as good as she could be' in the casket."

(p.9)

Quote #3

"Looking down at Jenny, Felding is satisfied. Under his careful hand, The young girl now looks at rest" 

(9.10)

Quote #4

"By the time Felding closes out the Johnson account, the sewage treatment plant in town had processed the one hundred twenty gallons of untreated 'funeral waste' the mortician sent directly down his sink during Jenny's ninety-minute enabling."

(p.33)

Quote #5

"I needed to know that it was clean and the staff would handle my moms remains with care"

(p.50)

Analysis:

The detachment noted between the funeral manager and his clients. He mentions that he does not try to comfort his clients. When you think about the carrier of being a Funeral manager, the only possible joy in the job would need to be making families feel better about loosing their loved ones or causing them to help shine light on the life of the dead. 

HW 48 - Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead(This One!!)

I interviewed three adults: My mom, my dad and a friend. They all had various answers to the questions. My dad admitted that he thought there is no after life and how he was raised Catholic. "Being raised Catholic I developed a strong cynicism for it. The more and more it was pushed on me the more I felt it was a joke. All christians are supposed to 'turn the other cheek' yet the christians in charge of the government are wageing war! Also the concept of confession bothered me. I did not like how people were not accountable for their actions." It seems that his despise of catholicism did not enforce his beliefs of the afterlife but guided his views. This demonstrated an opposition to the way one of the piers I interviewed. She has been raised with christian values yet she has less resentment towards the way the bible deals with death. This could be because she is a young teenager and has not yet developed despise. It could also be because she has not had the same bad experiences with the christian religion.

         Both my mother and my father had attended the same funeral. It was a russian orthodox funeral about 16 years ago. The dead was my dads longtime best friend. My dad said that he did not get to enjoy it. He was devastated. He spent the whole time in a mourning, sad mood. My mother was also morning but was able to observe the cultural difference of the funeral. She said that she liked the beauty of the ceremony. Even though she did not understand a word of russian she found an "ancient charm" in the practices she observed. Comparing the ritual she described to a funeral I attended in california, I realized that the traditions were not preserved as much as it sounds the orthodox religion was. I can only assume that the funeral I witnessed was typical of american funerals.

        When I interviewed my friend he just seemed completely uncomfortable with the topic of care of the dead. He minimally answered all questions except, "have you ever been to a funeral"? Which he answered with, "Yes. A girl my senior year of high school died. I found it so strange how we all pretended to know her well and went to her funeral and mourned." This raises the question of, why does everyone respect people more when they die? Through analyzing his answer I came up with a few ideas on why. First off, It could be our cultures way of trying to get the dead spirit to not haunt us. It could also be trying to avoid offending the people who may have loved the dead. This idea is also proven by the death of Michel Jackson. He was commonly made fun of. All of a sudden when he dies the world is filled with, R.I.P Michel the king of music and my hero.

HW 47 - Peer Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

For this project I interviewed C A and M. All girls my age. Two of which are my cousins. I chose to keep them all anonymous.

C

1) What issues have you thought about involving the care of the dead?

I don't really know much about it. I know that there are a lot if fossil fuels waisted. I know that if you bury someone you have to buy a casket and dig a hole in the ground and it costs a lot of money.

2) Would you rather be cremated or buried?

I would rather my body be donated to science for research but I don't really care

3) Would you like to be an organ donor?

Yea, I guess.

4) Does your religion effect your beliefs on how you should be treated after death?

I don't think my religion dictates my beliefs on the matter. I don't think it would want me to worship the bodies in a wired way.

5) Have you ever been to a funeral?

Yes I have been to many. The most resent was my grandmas funeral.

6) What was the over all mood of the funeral?

it was sad when people were mourning. Every one was crying and I was the only one not crying. I felt pressure to look happy because i think people like seeing happy young people.

A

1) What issues have you thought about involving the care of the dead? 

I don't know. I think it is weird for people to spend so much money on coffins and stuff. It is a waste of money.

2) Would you rather be cremated or buried?

Cremated. I don't want to be under the ground.

3) Would you like to be an organ donor?

Yes. Because I will not using them any more.

3) Does your religion effect your beliefs on how you should be treated after death?

Nope.

5) Have you ever been to a funeral?

Yes. 

6) What was the over all mood of the funeral?

Sad, a lot of people crying. Somber and dark. It was more mourning over a death then a celebration of life.

7) How do you think the religion of the people effected the mood at the funeral?

They were trying to use the bible to make it happier.

M 

1) What issues have you thought about involving the care of the dead? 

Not much. What did my sister say? I like how we all get together when we die but I don't like the way we celebrate it.

2) Would you rather be cremated or buried?

Cremated.

3) Would you like to be an organ donor

Yes.

4) Does your religion effect your beliefs on how you should be treated after death?

It doesn't.

5) Have you ever been to a funeral?

Yes.

6) What was the over all mood of the funeral?

Depressing but everyone was trying to be happy. I was crying.

8) How do you think the religion of the people effected the mood at the funeral?

It was very religious and kept mentioning god and how they have moved on to a better place. But it was sad that they were not there any more.

Conclusion

Similarities:

All of the kids my age have not thought about the issues with the way we go about caring for the dead that much. All in deferent levels though. One anonymous girl who was taking this course actually admitted that she knew very little about the topic. The outer girls were more uncomfortable about it. One girl said, "what did my sister say?" But they all had one thing in common they had not spent large amounts of time thinking about the topic. 

Differences:

A and M are sisters who live in Florida. I can only assume that they have had similar experiences regarding family funerals and exposure to the topic of care of the dead. C is a girl who is taking normal is weird. When asked wether their religious beliefs alter the way they think about care of the dead M and A both said that it did not. C said that her religion would probably not approve of strange worshiping of the dead body.

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

Religion and Fear of death

 It starts as a child. Shortly after we are told that we will die, we start wondering what will happen after we die. We learn what could happen to our bodies but we are often told that our soul will do something different. Understandably, children believe the first answer they hear. I first asked this question to my grandmother who told me that I would go to heaven. I believed that for years. I also was haunted by hearing about the idea of hell. But then I began to question this and told my self the more comforting story, that we all go to heaven. As I  got older this story seemed less and less appealing. If we all go to heaven then I would be stuck in the same place for all eternity as bad people so both stories seem unsettling. The most unsettling aspect of the after life is not knowing. It would have been easier for my grandma to just initially tell me that she does not know what happens after death.

 I got into a discussion with a friend about weather it would be better to pretend to believe in god just incase in the after life he exists and will be angry. My argument agents this idea is that there is too many religions for someone to cover all ground just incase. Say that the ancient Egyptian gods are the real, Wouldn't the god's prefer that you are agnostic or atheist then christian? This question remained remains. I would like to learn more about how different religions believe god/the gods will treat non-believers in the after life.

 Through my 17 years of life I have never heard of a culture ware no one believes in some sort of after life. Why do all cultures come up with an answer to what will happen after we die? It connects back to children. We all try to believe a story that we will live for ever. It is part of being human. With the intelligence that makes us human, comes the curiosity and fear of what will happen after we die. I would like to learn more about the physiological effects of religion on someone. I have heard that believing that there is an after life can cause someone to be happier even if what there believing is probably not true.

Burials

 The only experience I have had pertaining to burials is my grate grandpas funeral. It was a catholic funeral ware we met at a church and the body was carried down the isle in a casket by 6 men. One man was waring a military uniform to the funeral. I wondered why he would want to draw attention to himself at his stepfathers funeral. Wouldn't you want to get people to be grateful for the deceits not for your military work? Everyone but the military man was in black and everyone was serous. I did not like how everyone was there to remember the deceits but everyone was sad. If you remember a dead person don't you want to remember the good memories?

Cremation

I have had almost no experience with cremations. When I went to Hawaii with my grandma we were walking on the beach and there was a funeral going on ware we encountered a memorial serves. The man who had died was having his ashes spread in the ocean. My grandmother and I gave our condolences and left. It seemed like a happier ceremony then my grate grandfathers funeral. I don't think one is better then the other but I don't want to throw a party just so i can weep for my loved ones. I want to throw a party like the hawaiian one and celebrate my dead loved ones. I don't know if it has anything to do with the cremation. Perhaps the fact that the body is not there helps them get over the death which makes it easier to think about the happy parts of the persons life. 

Questions

What present of Americans are cremated?

How does religion effect the care of the dead?

How does religion effect attitude towards the after life?

How has care of the dead changed?

Do all doctors dissect corpses during training?

What are the laws pertaining to medical corps dissecting?

Why do people object to being organ donors?

Why do people chose to be organ donors?

Who decides weather an unidentified corps is?

What is the standard practice of a family who can not afford a barrel or cremation? 

When does the police decide that an unidentified body is appropriate to ether cremate or berry?

Where are cremations done?

When did cremations start?

How long have cremations always been normal in the USA?

How are cremations done?

Whats the most eco-friendly way of caring for a dead body?

HW 45 - Reply to Other Peoples' Comments

For Abdullah,
thank you for commenting. I appreciate the critique and will keep it in mind for my next project.

For martha (mom),
Thank you for commenting. If you want more statistics on general birth I recommend looking at the book Birth by tina Cassidy. Or just the appendix of it. It has tuns of statistics that you may find interesting.

For amanda,
After receiving your comment i decided it would be good to try to find a mom who had had multiple cesarians. I found a blog about a women who had attempted a VBAC and a story in a book about a woman who had gone through a VBAC. It would have made my project stronger to include these in my project


Thank you all for the advice!!

HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Leticia,

Your project gave an extremely emotional personal narrative. You showed a parallel between your experience with the United States medical care and the standard prenatal storeys. 

You used your personal voice which made it entertaining. You balanced the use of informal language and formal language to create a persuasive argument.

"(What!...he just a dam intern, I thought Dr. Tanner is my doctor. I was mad)."

This was later used as a connection to how the system goes about prenatal care. You used this project not only to critique the standard practices of birth care in our countries but to critique the standard practises of health care in general.

Although your personal narrative was persuasive and apt, it leaves me curious about finding personal narratives from pregnant women receiving prenatal care. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Abdullah,
You conducted a throw interview with a social worker for PATH.

It is evident that you actively inferred things while interviewing. This can prove to be a struggle when interviewing someone. you show this when you say, "(I wanted to tell him that taking a mother to a hospital when her water breaks is not the best thing to do but I digressed)"

One thing that may have added to your work would be referring to the pamphlets that Mr.C gave you.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda,
You artfully use statistical evidence to demonstrate the deferent needs they have. You discuss the available programs and assistance they can obtain.

This could at some point relate to any girl that I know. It is a serious issue that you address well.

although your writing was very informative, It would have been nice to hear a personal narrative from a pregnant teenager. Yet understand that is extremely difficult to find.

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

The facts of VBAC:
The C-Section Risks:


Cesarean sections are in general unnecessary. They themselves are risks so one thing I wanted to evaluate was the risks of vaginal birth after c-section compaired the risk of c-sections in general. "Cesarean section is a modest risk factor for ectopic pregnancy and an important risk factor for placental problems." (Hemminki) Ectopic pregnancy is when an embryo grows in the wrong area most often resulting in death of embryo. Placental problems include placenta prevue, and abrupt placentae. The risks continue to increase with more cesarian sections. So if all of these symptoms are possible then the argument that VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) is a risk to the health of the mother is out ruled. This is because these symptoms sound more dangerous then cesarian sections.
"The overall maternal intra-operativecomplication rate was 14.8%." (Ham)

VBAC RISKS:

           The ratio of fulfilled VBAC plans compared to the uterine tare risk demonstrates that doctors must be putting unnecessary pressure on women to have another cesarean section. 60% of women who plan on having a VBAC deliver vaginally. The risk of complication is .9% respectively. This complication is uterine taring. What about the other 40.1%? So 40.1% of women in our country are denied the right to have a natural birth. 

IN CONCLUSION:
         There are negative results from both abstaining from VBAC and doing them. As demonstrated above, the risks are about even. I by no means am saying that VBACs are the only safe post cesarean section birth, but I am saying that doctors should inform their patients of the benefits of vaginal birth and the risks of cesarean sections. Doctors, understandably, simplify the situation for women. Before the 1980's it was once a C-section always a C-section. There are doctors who recommend vaginal birth after a csarian. But there is nothing in between. There are no doctors who point out the pros and cons of both options. I remember the younger midwife guest speaker saying that people should only tell pregnant women positive birth stories. By putting a sharp divide between the Homeopathic and holistic makes defending an opinion more valuable to medical professionals then the mother and baby's health.

Work cited:

Rubin, Rita. "Study backs natural birth after C-section." USA TODAY 6/29/2006, Print

"VBAC with Uterine Rupture - Our Story." sitearts (2000): n. pag. Web. 4 Apr 2011. <http://www.sitearts.com/rupture/>.

"Vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC) rate." Northwastern Memorial Hospital (1010): n. pag. Web. 4 Apr 2011. <http://www.nmh.org/nm/quality+vaginal+birth+after+cesarean+rate>. 

Evans, Joel. The whole pregnancy hand book. New York, NY: Gotham books, 2005. 484. Print.

Hemminki, Elina. "Long-term effects of cesarean sections: Ectopic pregnancies and placental problems." American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (1995): n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2011. <http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(96)70608-7/abstract>.

"baby." google. Web. 8 Apr 2011. <http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liz7p8LlbM1qengdjo1_400.jpg>.

HW 41 - Independent Research

research on VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian).

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-06-29-vbac_x.htm

Rubin, Rita. "Study backs natural birth after C-section." USA TODAY 6/29/2006, Print

This article discusses a study done on women with previous C-sections. It ultimately concluded that women who had multiple cesarian sections were almost just as likely to have the commonly feared uterine tear or rupture. 

"I think most practitioners have with time shied away from offering VBAC to women with multiple prior cesareans because of a perceived risk of uterine rupture."

"VBAC with Uterine Rupture - Our Story." sitearts (2000): n. pag. Web. 4 Apr 2011. <http://www.sitearts.com/rupture/>.

This is a personal story of a woman who attempted a VBAC and harmed her child and ruptured her cervix all the way down to her vagina. 

"Vaginal birth after Cesarean (VBAC) rate." Northwastern Memorial Hospital (1010): n. pag. Web. 4 Apr 2011. <http://www.nmh.org/nm/quality+vaginal+birth+after+cesarean+rate>. 

This article discusses and defines a vbac. It talks about the rate of how many women participate in a vaginal birth who had previously had a cesarian section. The national average is 9.07.