https://news.yahoo.com/specter-soylent-green-raised-legislative-090000953.html?
Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune
Tue, April 25, 2023 at 4:00 AM CDT·7 min read
In this article:
· Katrina Spade
Natural burial advocate and designer
Daniel Hennessy’s mother didn’t want to be buried when she died, because she didn’t want her body to take up any land.
He wasn’t a fan of cremation, but given his mother’s request, he felt that was the only option when she died a few years ago.
Hennessey began reading up on a process called natural organic reduction, which allows human remains to be converted into soil. It’s also known as “human composting.”
He came to find it both honorable and eco-friendly.
“I think that the human composting option appears to be the best for the environment. It makes sense. It’s a slow process. So it feels a bit more dignified than being burned at 1,200 degrees,” said Hennessy, a native of England who lives in Chicago.
At Hennessy’s urging, state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a Chicago Democrat, tried early last year to push through legislation that would codify natural organic reduction as an alternative to handling human remains.
That effort failed, but Cassidy reintroduced the bill and, after a debate that included references to the 1973 dystopian thriller “Soylent Green,” the Illinois House last month narrowly approved the measure, which is now before the Senate.
If Cassidy’s legislation gets enough votes in that chamber and is signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois would become the seventh state in the country to legalize the process. Cassidy has also indicated that she wishes to have her remains go through human composting.
“Many of the providers have found really beautiful ways for families to memorialize their loved ones by building conservation spaces where very often they’re taking land that is otherwise unusable, restoring it to health and creating a really lovely beautiful place where people can go and meditate and be with their loved ones without the carbon footprint involved in a traditional burial,” Cassidy said on the House floor moments before the bill passed with only three votes to spare, 63-38.