UK finds new fuel source to undercut Russian stranglehold on Europe

[kentonio]

There are similarities but the obvious difference is that those lampshades weren't exactly made to save on fabric costs.

Yes, that's obviously the biggest and most obvious difference.

[DinoDoc]

Yes, it's clearly exactly the same.

What's the difference? Your argument is essentially that they are dead and the dead don't care what you do with them. Your 1st reaction to the story was Recycling. So what exactly is the difference?

[MrFun]

Well, this thread topic is boring.

[Hauldren Collider]

Jews aren't people -> use their skin for drawstring lamps
Fetuses aren't people -> use their dead bodies to generate electricity

You can say this is over the top and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but this whole story is so surreal and over the top I'm not sure it matters.

[Thoth]

Dead bodies are dead bodies.

If you're going to cremate anyway, why not get a bit of electricity as a bonus?

[Uncle Sparky]

Blood/organ donors aren't people... wait... yes I am!

I assume no one here is in favour of burying the dead - they turn into mulch! That is wrong.

[kentonio]

What's the difference? Your argument is essentially that they are dead and the dead don't care what you do with them. Your 1st reaction to the story was Recycling. So what exactly is the difference?

What's the difference between human remains being cremated and the energy used to provide warmth, and someone skinning the bodies of people slaughtered in a genocide to make household ornaments for their amusement? Gee, I don't know genius, what do you think?

[regexcellent]

Yes, that's obviously the biggest and most obvious difference.

It's the only really meaningful difference; the lampshades were tasteless ornaments while the hospital is saving on energy bills. If you're fine with doing whatever with human remains, then either is acceptable as is cannibalism.

[kentonio]

It's the only really meaningful difference; the lampshades were tasteless ornaments while the hospital is saving on energy bills. If you're fine with doing whatever with human remains, then either is acceptable as is cannibalism.

If you don't mind eating animals then you must love eating people, because they're mammals too! AmIDoingItRite?

[regexcellent]

No, you're not. If you take the position that human remains are not in any way sacred, then it follows necessarily that making lampshades and shrunken heads out of the people you murder isn't any worse than just murdering them.

You're going to have to come up with a more nuanced position to justify the cremation power but not the lampshades.

[DinoDoc]

What's the difference between human remains being cremated and the energy used to provide warmth, and someone skinning the bodies of people slaughtered in a genocide to make household ornaments for their amusement?

According to your own earlier argument, this isn't a meaningful difference. Think of it as extreme recycling if it helps.

[kentonio]

You're going to have to come up with a more nuanced position to justify the cremation power but not the lampshades.

I truly love the idea that you are the master of the nuanced position.

[regexcellent]

When did I say that?

All I said was that you need a more complex set of moral beliefs about dead bodies than "they are not at all sacred" to justify one and not the other. I didn't say that I have those beliefs, or even that they are correct; only that yours do not jive with what you think about the morality of lampshades made from human skin.

[kentonio]

Here's the thing ladies, there's a difference between what you did (immediately freak out at the idea that a human body could be cremated and the energy actually used for something useful) and the idea that you should be free to do anything with human bodies regardless of the effects on the family and loved ones.

Like Guy, I'd be against this too if it was something the families didn't want, however all you've done is display some tedious conventional view about human remains somehow being sacred. I can't remember if you're an athiest or religious Reg, but in your brothers case it's pretty silly to claim to be athiest and yet attach some deep meaning to what is basically nothing more than a pile of bones and tissue which will soon decay and decompose anyway.

[Hauldren Collider]

I never said I attached deep meaning to it, kentonio, but a) I don't know how I would feel if I were a parent and it were my miscarried child and b) I'm fairly disgusted at the practice of unceremoniously discarding human remains without consultation of relatives since many people do care very much about these things.