Death warmed over
Jay Maeder
US News & World Report
September 29, 1997

Finally: Useful public service from dead people, heretofore nothing but a
bunch of layabouts. Pulling their weight at last in the commonweal, dead
people are now heating thousands of homes in Sweden, their posthumous
candlepower piped to local energy companies from the ovens of two high-tech
crematoriums. Considerable uproar has attended recent revelations of this
new power experiment, which the parties involved had previously kept secret
for six months; over the din they now insist that dank, dark, hoarfrosted 
Sweden should welcome the supplemental toastiness. "It's only sensible!"
argues Helsingborg crematory official Borje Stolt. "It's environmentally
friendly! And relatives can console themselves that the death of a loved one
benefits the whole community!" But many churchmen are quite distressed by
what they view as an affront to the fundamental nature of the bereavement
process: "No one wants Aunt Astrid heating up the living room!" fumes
Baptist preacher Lennart Nilsson. Agrees another clergyman: "It's a 
little sensitive." On the other hand, concedes Boras pastor Henrik
Nystrom: "True, you still get the ashes." The noisy flap notwithstanding,
there are no immediate plans to discontinue the project. Says Stolt: "We
just can't afford to be sentimental about this."