Ethics Untangled
Ethics Untangled is a series of conversations about the ethical issues that affect all of us, with academics who have spent some time thinking about them.
Ethics Untangled is also the long-form online presence of IDEA, edited by Danielle Bromwich and Luke Brunning, where we make room for longer interviews, staff and student profiles, articles and other forms of content.
Both are brought to you by IDEA, the Ethics Centre, a specialist unit for teaching, research, training and consultancy in Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds. IDEA offers Masters programmes in Healthcare Ethics and Applied and Professional Ethics, research degrees and consultancy services.
The Ethics Untangled podcast is edited by Mark Smith at Leeds Media Services.
Music is by Kate Wood.
Ethics Untangled
64. Should we dispose of bodies in a more environmentally friendly way? With Sarah Carter-Walshaw
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Content warning: This episode contains frank discussion of death and of various forms of body disposal, which some might find distressing.
Sarah Carter-Walshaw, Lecturer in Applied and Inter-Disciplinary Ethics at IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds, has been thinking about the ethics of what happens to us after we die. The problem is that the current most popular methods of body disposal - cremation and burial, aren't very environmentally friendly. The good news is that other, greener methods are available. The bad news is that, so far at least, these haven’t really caught on. In this conversation we discuss why not, as well as the ethical question of whether we have an obligation to consider these forms of body disposal for ourselves.
Sarah is holding a virtual workshop on body disposal ethics at IDEA: The Ethics Centre, University of Leeds on 9 July 2026. Register for free here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/4RXPASJpiW.
Further Reading:
- Balonier, AK, Parsons, E, & Patterson, A. The unnaturalness of natural burials: dispossessing the dispossessed. Mortality. 24(2), pp.212–230
- Booth, R. 2023. The Guardian: 'Boil in the bag’ environmentally friendly funerals arrive in the UK.
- Darwall, Stephen. 2017. “What Are Moral Reasons?” The Amherst Lecture in Philosophy 12: 1–24.
- Dembosky, A. 2024. NPR: The ultimate green burial? Human composting lets you replenish the earth after death.
- Mason, A. 2023. What’s Wrong with Lookism? Personal Appearance, Discrimination, and Disadvantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Rieder, TN & Bernstein, J. 2020. The Case of ‘Contributory Ethics’: Or How to Think about Individual Morality in a Time of Global Problems. Ethics, Policy & Environment. 23(3), pp.299-319.
- Schafer, C (2012) Corpses, conflict and insignificance? A critical analysis of post-mortem practices. Mortality. 17(4), pp.305-321.
- Schwenkenbecher, A. 2014. Is there an obligation to reduce one’s individual carbon footprint? Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 17(2), pp.168-188.
Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.
As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.
Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetl