A dead person is just a body?

[Suzy]

Sounds shocking doesn't it. Why bother with the body after they have died?
I was watching a documentary the other day about the loss of a submarine in the Barents sea. Getting to the sub and recovering the bodies involved a huge amount of time, money and most importantly, risk to the divers.
My question for debate is why?
Yes I know its human nature to want to bring back a loved ones body and give it a decent burial. And religious people will have there thoughts on this too. But I personally think it is a total waste of time and money.
There are countless examples of the bodies of loved ones being brought back from far flung places for burial. But in that body bag or coffin is just the remains. A piece of decaying meat.
I do understand the feelings of the family and friends of the deceased and may be I will react the same if I loose someone close to me. But I have no problem with admitting here that I have never visited my fathers grave. Why? Because my amazing and lovely Dad was gone when he drew his last breath. What was left just made good fertilizer or food for the worms.
I sometimes say to my family, when I die just put me in the rubbish bin.

[Suzy]

[Replying to post 20 by jerryxplu]

You make a good point and I was thinking the same thing. In other words nobody can be 100% logical. We are emotional animals.
But to risk the lives of the living for the dead as in the submarine example is not acceptable is it? Or retrieving bodies off a mountain if it puts the rescue team in real danger?
Life is for the living.

[jerryxplu]

[Replying to Suzy]

Life is indeed for the living.
Quality of life become a problem though.
For example in time of war, we often see people risking their life for the brother in arm by trying to get them back to their family even if the person may already be dead. Now of course we should not in reality be risking your life in lines of fire logically in order to bring back a dead body. But people do it all the time because we care for the person when they were alive as well as their love one.

As the example of diver for submarine I think that is another matter of autonomy. I don't believe they are risking their life for nothing. First they are train to do it, they are probably being pay to do it, they are doing it out of their free will with the knowledge that there can be dire consequences. With that in mind I see no problem in having them attempting to retrieve the bodies back. Whole different story if they are being force by someone else to perform the task of course.