Apropos of my most recent post about why euthanasia may someday be legal (because the medical-industrial complex insists on keeping people alive indefinitely, no matter what their condition), the US bishops have issued revised directives that require artificial nutrition and hydration for people in persistent vegetative states and even dementia, unless death is expected in two weeks.

Oh dear.

When we surveyed U.S. Catholic readers last March about their last wishes, a few noted that they wanted to be cremated to avoid being pumped full of chemicals. There's another option, however: natural burial. No embalming, no fancy casket, no big concrete vault; just a shroud or pine box lowered into the ground.