The last material under the heading "Wonderful Life of People" is dedicated to the search for the country where the best conditions are created to complete the earthly path.

Space Services offers to send part of the dust of the deceased into space.
Photo: The Tennessean, Eric Parsons, Ap

Since each person perceives death in his own way, there is no ideal way to die. When determining the best place to leave life, we will rely on the values that the Western humanistic worldview dictates. Accordingly, we will find out where you can die without tormenting, where the best conditions for burial are created and where it is best to formulate dying will.

Painless death

What a person dies on, largely depends on the place of residence. The distribution of mortality from serious diseases that can force anyone to finish life in agony is extremely uneven in the world. And since a mild (and at the same time non -violent) death, according to traditional ideas, is the death of fast and painless, it is worth taking a closer look at those countries in which serious diseases are least common.

The World Health Organization (WHO) conducts incidence statistics in almost all countries. Its experts argue that in the next 20 years, non -infectious diseases will be the main threat to human health around the world - heart disease, diabetes, asthma or cancer. The most effective with diseases of this kind are fighting in Japan, Monaco and Switzerland, where the mortality associated with them lasts at the level of 280-350 cases per year per 100 thousand people. These countries have high -quality healthcare systems that allow you to prevent the development of deadly diseases.

If, without losing hope for the best, nevertheless it was not possible to avoid the worst scena of events-when it was not possible to avoid a deadly and painful disease-one should look at those countries in which the patient has the opportunity to stop his flour by euthanasia or suicide with the help of a doctor. Ethical disputes about suicide permissibility in such cases have been conducted for more than one decade. And only in several countries certain forms of euthanasia are permitted by law.

In Belgium, a doctor can either introduce an incurable patient with a deadly dose of medicine - this is an active euthanasia, or disconnect the patient from apparatus supporting life - this is passive. Belgium legislation also provides for suicide with the help of a doctor, when the patient himself introduces the necessary injection under medical supervision. The decision on the termination of the patient’s life is made only at his request and must be supported by an independent doctor and, if there are doubts about the patient's legal capacity, a psychiatrist.

Similar rules apply in the Netherlands. In other regions that allowed patients to independently decide on their death (in Switzerland and in the American states of Oregon and Washington), doctors are prohibited from participating in the procedure. But they have the right to prescribe the appropriate drugs to the patient, leaving the last choice after him.

Although fierce debates about whether it is legitimate to allow euthanasia or suicide with the help of a doctor, they continue, the very patients themselves are more and more willing to make an irreversible choice. Last year, for example, only in Oregon 314 people took advantage of their right to death.

Thus, residents of four countries - Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA can most freely dispose of their lives and death.

Lush funeral

According to scientific ideas about death, after it we will not have to worry about the abandoned body. Nevertheless, most people are not indifferent to what will happen to them.

Like centuries ago, the most common burial in the world, especially in countries with a small population density (a list of the best cemeteries in the world, see the table). Where there are few places for cemeteries, they resort to cremation. For example, they come to the UK, where more than 70% of bodies are burned, and in Japan (over 90%). In some cultures, cremation is a long -established custom and is explained, as a rule, religious beliefs. Let's say in India it is believed that body burning allows the soul to be easier to break off with him and begin the search for a new refuge. Among the Hindus, the custom of scattering the ashes of the deceased over the sacred river Ganges instilled. And in Japan, it is customary to bury the remains in the ground after a complex and expensive ceremony. Now the funeral in Japan is considered almost the most expensive in the world: on average, the relatives of the deceased spend about $ 14 thousand on them.

A much more advanced funeral industry has developed in the United States, where private companies offer a wide selection of ways to take a client on the last journey. For example, Summon employees from Salt Lake City can embalm the body of the deceased. The process will cost $ 60 thousand, including the cost of a bronze sarcophagus. Those who do not want to spend a lot of money can contact specialists of another profile, who are already dealing with the remains after cremation. Space Services, for example, proposes to send part of the dust of the deceased to space. There are several options to choose from. For $ 625, part of the cremated remains weighing one gram will be able to travel to the zone of zero gravity in a special rocket, which will land in 15 minutes so that the family of the deceased can take the dust back. For $ 2.5 thousand. The company can produce a more symbolic rite. As reported on her website, "the Celestis spacecraft with the ashes of the deceased will be in the orbit of the Earth, where he will remain until it enters the atmosphere, evaporating harmlessly, like a sparkling falling star."

In November, Space Services presented a new project. Its leaders decided to start sending human remains to the moon. The founder and head of the company Charles Chaifer said: "The first flight can occur already in 2010, we have already begun to reserve a place (intended for the lunar cemetery . -" power " )." He added that the capsules with ashes will go to the moon in a massive order - 5 thousand at a time. The company's website can already order such a service - it will cost $ 9995 per 1 gram and almost $ 20 thousand per 7 grams. Finally, the most exclusive proposal of the company is to send cremated remains to long -range cosmos ($ 12.5 thousand per gram).

In the United States, there are also enterprises that offer cryoning services - frosts of the body of the deceased until better times, when technologies allow him to resurrect. The cost of these services is quite high - Alcor corporation, for example, requires $ 150 thousand for freezing the whole body and $ 80 thousand - per brain. The Russian company "Cryorus" does the same several times cheaper - respectively for $ 30 thousand and $ 9 thousand.

Thus, the widest spectrum of funeral services is offered in the United States.

The question of inheritance

If the deceased managed to make at least something during his life, the question of inheritance inevitably arises inevitably. In this parameter, the country is very significant. In many places, death is accompanied by large material losses - part of the inheritance passes into the hands of the state. In Japan, for example, inheritance tax is from 10% (if the value of property is less than $ 94 thousand) to 50% (if we are talking about the amount of more than $ 2.8 million).

In Iran, the closest relatives of the deceased necessarily receive at least two -thirds of his property, even if he did not leave a will. But at the same time, they have to pay a rather high tax - from 5 to 35% of the total cost of the inheritance. And if distant relatives become heirs, they give the state from 35 to 65% of the value of the property.

Inheritance tax exists in most countries, despite the fact that its very idea of many causes disapproval. Opponents of this "death tax" accuse the governments of those countries where it acts, in attempts to cash in on someone else's misfortune. Nevertheless, even the most developed states do not want to cancel it. In Europe, the size of this tax either depends on the size of the inheritance and degree of kinship of heirs and can vary from 2 to 60% (as in Austria), or is fixed-10-15% (as in Denmark, for example).

However, there are more pleasant for the heirs of the country who canceled the "death tax" or never used it at all. This, for example, is all the oil monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula, Russia, Australia, Sweden, Singapore and some US states, in particular New Mexico, South Dakota, South Carolina and Utah. In many other states, however, there is an aggressive system of taxation of inheritance, in which the recipients of property are required to give the state from 18 to 45% of its value.

Thus, death is the least burdensome for heirs in a number of countries, as well as in the four states of the United States.

Dry residue. After analyzing the main aspects related to the cessation of life, we decided to give preference to the United States where liberal medical legislation is in force, any types of posthumous services are available, and the inheritance is not taxed. True, in order to use all this, you will have to move from state to staff.

Egor Nizamov

*Previous materials of the heading, see NN3, 7, 12, 16, 20, 25, 29, 33, 38, 42 and 46 for this year.)

Where is it better to die