First human-composting funeral home in the U.S. opens
Recompose, a Seattle-based company, now offers an innovative funeral service that turns human remains into healthy soil.
Death & grief
Canada grants first legal exemptions for psilocybin use in 50 years
Four terminally ill cancer patients in Canada have now been approved to use psilocybin to treat end-of-life distress. These patients will be the first to legally use the psychedelic in Canada for almost half a century.
U.S. life expectancy goes up for the first time since 2014
Life expectancy in the United States went up for the first time in four years in 2018, thanks largely to a decrease in death rates from cancer and drug overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The global homicide rate fell by 46% worldwide between 1990 and 2015
Between 1990 and 2015, the number of homicides per 100,000 people fell by 46%, with countries in Oceania experiencing a 22% drop over the same period, and 36% in Asia.
The state of New York sees first drop in opioid deaths since 2009
After years of rising opioid-related overdoses deaths among state residents, 2018 finally saw a drop, from 2,170 deaths in 2017, to 1,824 deaths – a 15.9 percent decrease.
Japan records lowest suicide rate since statistics were first kept in 1978
2018 marks the ninth consecutive with a year-on-year decrease in suicides in Japan and the first time in 37 years for the total to fall below 21,000.
Body donations surge in Japan amid changing views of death
Some 296,000 people had offered to donate their bodies to universities as of March 31, 2018, compared with about 68,000 in 1985, with the figure increasing by 8,000 annually in recent years.
Washington State becomes first in the United States to allow human composting
The practice reduces the environmental impact and saves land from being taken up by cemetery plots and headstones.
New Jersey legalizes medically assisted suicide for the terminally ill
The bill allows adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live to get a prescription for life-ending medication. Currently, California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Hawaii, Montana and the District of Columbia allow physician-assisted suicide.
Humans begin practicing ceremonial burial
A 50,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton discovered in a cave in France was intentionally buried.