On his 66th birthday last May, Harry E. Echols learned he had esophageal cancer.

The prognosis was grim enough that Echols decided against treatment that might only slow the inevitable. With the help of his sister, Janet Ferguson, the Atlanta man began putting his affairs in order and arranging his funeral.

Echols never liked the idea of an embalmed body lying in a casket, a semblance of a former self, displayed for grieving family and friends. Cremation didn't appeal to him, either.