subject: Arranging for Cremation [print this page] Arranging for Cremation Arranging for Cremation
Arranging for Cremation
In the practical matter of arranging with the undertaker orcrematory establishment for the cremation of human remains, the one problem encountered almost universally is the insistence that the corpse to be cremated must be enclosed in acasket. This, of course, involves the sale of a casket or container for the dead which serves no preservative purpose andwhich, in fact, is burned or melted down with the body in thecrematory. "The casket serves its primary purpose in creatinga memory picture at the time of the funeral service," statesthe information booklet of the Cremation Association ofAmerica. A family desiring to have the remains of a loved onecremated, and not desiring to pay for a rather expensive"memory picture" which may at best be an extremely sadmemory presenting a picture of the loved one after death andnot as fondly remembered during life, may find itself against astone wall if the crematory refuses flatly to accept an uncas-keted body. No state statute requires that a body to be cremated be enclosed in a casket, and this author's research doesnot reveal the existence of any local health or safety regulation requiring a casket. The casket is, of course, an item ofexpense and an item sold by the persons providing the funeralmerchandise.
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Other problems surround the business practice of manyundertakers and many crematories who insist that the body beembalmed before cremation. When the crematory employs amonopoly position in the community, or where all such firmshave banded together and have taken this position, little recourse is left to the bereaved family.
