Insuring the Dead
July 1, 2014 8:34 AM   Subscribe

 
I'm glad someone is returning these people home to their families and making sure that they are treated with respect. There's something very tragic about unclaimed bodies lying in a mortuary.
posted by arcticseal at 9:28 AM on July 1, 2014


Although the repatriation aspect is new, the importance of burial insurance particularly for new immigrants is not. I remember my (Irish-American) grandparents and older relatives telling stories about the life insurance man coming around, house to house, in working-class neighborhoods to collect the 10ยข a week for burial policies. Selling plots of land in advance was a big business as well, to the point where you sometimes still hear burial plots referred to as "Irish real estate".

There's something about being an immigrant, especially if you're the sole provider for a lot of other people, that makes the thought of dying and leaving others to clean up the mess particularly terrifying. If someone tells you that for a little money now, you can eliminate that risk completely? No wonder generations of people have taken that deal.
posted by Kadin2048 at 10:54 AM on July 1, 2014


PASSPORT GIRL (TV)
(Interrupting) Thank you. Despite
and excellent and continually
improving safety record there are
certain risks inherent in space
travel and an extremely high cost
of payload. Because of this it
is necessary for the Space Carrier
to advise you that it cannot be
responsible for the return of your
body to Earth should you become
deceased on the Moon or en route
to the Moon. However, it wishes
to advise you that insurance
covering this contingency is
available in the Main Lounge.
Thank you. You are cleared
through Voice Print Identification.
posted by charlie don't surf at 3:42 PM on July 1, 2014


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