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Tissue digestion, also known as alkaline hydrolysis or “water reduction,” dissolves human and animal remains into a sterile brown liquid and some bones. It is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than cremation, and preferred by labs and researchers for its efficiency and safety. While some find it disrespectful, others argue that it simply speeds up the natural decay process. Tissue digesters come in various sizes, including models for human remains, but as of 2008, no funeral homes offer the service to clients.
Tissue digestion is a process that can be used to dispose of human and animal remains. It essentially involves dissolving the remains, reducing them to about two percent of the original body weight, depending on the size of the original sample. Research labs have used tissue digestion since the 1990s, when the technique was first developed, and in the early 2000s, morgues showed a growing interest in making the technology available to their customers.
The technical term for tissue digestion is “alkaline hydrolysis,” with the funeral industry preferring the friendlier-sounding “water reduction.” When the remains undergo tissue digestion, they are placed in a heated, pressurized container and exposed to the lye, which dissolves much of the organic material, leaving behind a thick brown liquid and some of the larger bones.
The brown liquid produced by alkaline hydrolysis is perfectly sterile and could potentially be flushed down a drain. In fact, most establishments do just that. The remaining bones are dry and brittle and may be pulverized and stored or otherwise disposed of, depending on how one feels about the deceased.
There are a number of advantages to tissue digestion over other techniques for handling remains. It is significantly less expensive than cremation and is also much more environmentally friendly. From the point of view of laboratories and researchers, alkaline hydrolysis is the preferred method of disposal as it is easy and efficient and furthermore the process destroys the prions, ensuring that the reduced remains are safe to handle. Medical schools and other facilities that research donated cadavers also use tissue digestion to manage their remains.
For humans, tissue digestion appeals to the alternative burial community, who like the idea that the process is both cheaper and more environmentally friendly than cremation. Some people feel that alkaline hydrolysis is disrespectful to human remains, as it involves turning the remains into a brown goo, but others argue that all remains eventually decay—digestion of tissue simply speeds up the process. Critics also oppose the idea of pouring human remains down a drain, although closed reclamation systems could potentially be used to reduce the liquid to a powder that could be preserved with the pulverized bones.
Different companies produce tissue digesters in various sizes, from extremely large models designed to handle livestock to smaller versions for small animal hospitals. There are also tissue digesters specifically designed to handle human remains; as of 2008, no funeral home officially offers alkaline hydrolysis to their clients, but there are hopes that the process may soon be open to the public.
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