When a person dies, assuming it was a natural death, not needing a corner or autopsy, a funeral director is called and the body is taken by the funeral home to the mortuary to be prepared, in most cases, for viewing, then a funeral. The body is cleaned, embalmed, dressed, and placed in a casket.
According to the Federal Trade Commission's Guidelines for Funeral Service Providers (The Funeral Rule) "Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary, however, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want to embalm, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial. Embalming is the process of removing blood and gases in the body and replacing them with a strong disinfectant and preservative."
"Embalming may be necessary, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want to embalm, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial."
The casket is then buried in a cemetery with a vault. A vault is basically a concrete or metal box that houses the casket. The vault is used to keep the ground from caving in during the time. Burial vaults have started to now serve the function of protecting the casket. This type of vaults is much more expensive than a regular concrete vault. They are hermetically sealed and covered with a veneer either made of bronze, granite or marble.
However, embalming and protective burial vaults are only meant to deter the process of composition. Eventually, the body will decay, and it's illegal for a funeral director to tell you otherwise. Burial vaults are required by most cemeteries to keep the ground from settling in above the casket. This helps with the maintenance of the cemetery lawn.
Cremation
It is gaining popularity in the U.S. According to The National Funeral Directors Association and its 2018 Cremation & Burial Report: "This year the cremation rate is predicted to reach 53.5 percent, with a forecast that the national cremation rate will now reach 80% by 2035 crematory."
[Source: Marsden, Sara J. “What Is the 2018 Cremation Rate in the US? And How Is This Affecting the Death Industry?” What Is the 2018 Cremation Rate in the US? And How Is This Affecting the Death, 8 July 2018, www.us-funerals.com/funeral-articles/2018-US-Cremation-Rate.html]
Modern cremation is often done in a crematory, a building equipped with a cremator, a furnace that can generate temperatures up to 1,800 °F. Cremating an average person takes 2 to 2 1/2 hours. The body is either cremated within a casket or a simple cardboard box. You do not need to purchase a casket in order to be cremated.
The organic material of the body is completely burned after the 2 1/2 hours and all that is left is bone fragments. The cremated remains are removed. Any metal such as joint replacements is removed with a magnet. The remains are then put into a processor and crushed into a fine powder material, giving the remains the appearance of baby powder.
There are many options to then "house" the cremated remains. The most common methods are in an Urn either placed in a niche in a mausoleum, buried in a cemetery, scattered, or just left in an urn in possession with the family. The selection of urns available is numerous. There are many options to complement the personality of the deceased.
In some places around the world, such as India. The body is cremated in the open air. Indians believe that touching a dead body is highly taboo, and only members of the lower cast are allowed to do this. The body is placed upon a funeral pyre, made out of logs, and sticks. The pyre is placed next to the Ganges River which is considered holy.
There are other less common methods such as making the ashes into diamonds, sending them into space, placing them in a locket or a pendant, burying them in an underwater reef, and having them turned into ink and incorporation into a tattoo.
For more information on Cremation please visit:
The Cremation Association of North America
The Internet Cremation Society
Celestis, Inc. - Post-Cremation Memorial Spaceflights
LifeGem -Ashes To Diamonds
Eternal Reefs -Ashes Into Reefs
Cremation In India -Short Online National Geographic Video
Caskets & Coffins
Coffins and caskets have become interchangeable words in modern society both essentially meaning the same thing. However, there are differences between the two.
A coffin is a six-sided box made out of wood. It fits the shape of a body. Coffins are often associated with vampire movies.
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| Coffin |
A casket is a 4 sided box that can either be made out of wood or metal. It has a split top to allow viewing of the upper half of the body. The inside is padded with the material, and gives the illusion of being "comfortable" and "restful". It is thought by historians that morticians started selling caskets instead of coffins thinking that a casket would be more pleasing to families of the deceased. A casket looks more like a bed then simple a box to put a body in.
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| Casket |
Today, the most popular option of disposing of a dead body is traditional earth burial but that cremation will likely become the most popular method in the near future.
Batesville Casket Company headquartered in Indiana is one of the biggest companies to manufacture caskets.
Caskets can be individualized according to the family's wishes.
Caskets are most often purchased through a funeral home, but one can also buy directly through a company, such as Walmart, and have the casket shipped to the funeral home.
For more information on traditional funerals and burials please visit:
National Funeral Director Association
Batesville Casket Company
Funeral Service Foundation
Natural Museum of Funeral History- Houston, Texas
Mausoleums
"A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people" [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum]
Mausoleums became quite popular at the end of the 19th century in America. America's industrial elite such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, railroad tycoon, Frank W. Woolworth, founder of Woolworth Company, Charles H. Schwab, American steel magnate, Charles G. Dawes, vice president under Calvin Coolidge, Aaron Montgomery Ward, famous for the Montgomery Ward Catalog, and Richard W. Sears, founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company, all chose this method of burial. It was a way to leave a legacy. A reminder of their wealth, and status. When the Depression hit mausoleums became a less popular option for interment. However, they are now starting to become more common. Companies such as American Mausoleums are making some beautiful mausoleums that are equal to their earlier counterparts, in elegance and status.
For more information on Mausoleums please visit:
Mausoleums.com - A provider of custom private mausoleums throughout the United States
The Taj Mahal
Lenin Mausoleum
Cornelius Vanderbilt Mausoleum - Youtube
Frank Woolworth Mausoleum -Scouting New York blog
Richard W. Sears Mausoleum - Graveyards of Chicago website
Mausoleum Photo: Tamanoeconomico, Joseph Kinney Mausoleum (2), CC BY-SA 4.0
Green Funerals
It wasn't until the Civil War that the practice of taking care of your dead began to change. The families of the dead soldiers wanted the solider's body shipped back home. With so many decaying bodies a way to stop the decomposition needed to be implemented. The modern practice of embalming and preparing the dead for burial was born. President Abraham Lincoln was one of the first people whose body was preserved with the new technique of embalming.
[Source: Naegele, Ken. “History of Funerals in the U.S.” U.S. Funeral History- North American Funerals: The Funeral Source, thefuneralsource.org/hi0301.html.]
Green or Natural Burial is the process of burying a body in the earth without a traditional coffin or a vault. The idea is to have the body have contact with the Earth and decay naturally and be recycled or returned to the Earth. The body is not embalmed or injected with chemical preserving agents. The body is most often put in a simple shroud before being placed in the Earth. However, the body may be placed in a biodegradable coffin.
A green funeral is also attractive to people who are looking to lessen their environmental impact on the Earth. In addition to recycling, driving electric cars, and buying organic and free-range produce and meat, people are also wanting their funerals and burials to be green.
The disuse of chemicals to preserve the body, and cutting down trees to build a wooden coffin is attractive to this type of consumer. They want their body to be returned back to the Earth, and not have their body's decomposition deterred.
There are natural burial sites around the world that look more like a simple field or forest than a cemetery. There are no traditional gravestones or monuments. Natural landscaping such as boulders, rocks, and trees are the only ornaments. Bodies can be buried with GPS locators to mark the place of burial. "The United States now has about a dozen green cemeteries, while Great Britain has about 200. While more than 70 percent of Americans polled by AARP prefer green burials, most funeral homes and directors don't offer this service to the environmentally-conscious consumer." [Source: Trimarchi, Maria. "How Natural Burial Works" 15 January 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. 13 April 2014]
For more information on green/natural funerals and burials, please visit:
Green Burial Council
A Greener Funeral
The Natural Burial Company
Final Footprint
Cryonics
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| Cryonic Storage Tanks |
In cryonics, there are two terms that are used often and the difference between the two is important to understand:
Legal Death, and Total Death.
People who undergo cryonics must be legally dead, that is their heart must have stopped beating. Total death is the when brain function stops. Cryonic scientists say that without total death the brain still has cellular function. They state that a person can be resurrected as long as they are not in "Total Death".
A person's body isn't simply frozen to preserve it. If you froze a body the water within the cells of the body would form ice crystals which would destroy the cells, making the ability to resurrect a person completely impossible. The water from your cells is replaced with something called a cryoprotectant, a glycerol-based chemical that protects the cells and tissues from forming ice crystals. Vitrification is the process of cooling the body at extremely low temperatures without freezing it.
Neuro suspension is the process of removing the head of a body instead of whole-body cryogenic preservation. The thought behind this is the brain is the only organ that is essential to restore a person back to "who" they once were, with their thoughts, and mind. The hope is that the science of the future will give the ability for a body clone or some sort of robotic body will be available to attach the head to.
The body or head is then stored in a tank filled with liquid nitrogen, for the inevitable future. You often have "roommates". These tanks can store up to four bodies and six heads.
Cryonics definitely isn't cheap. It can cost up to $150,000 for whole-body preservation and up to $50,000 for just your head. [Source: Watson, Stephanie. "How Cryonics Works" 05 January 2005. HowStuffWorks.com.]
Photo: Dan, Cryonics Institute, CC BY-SA 4.0
For more information on Cryonics please visit:
Cryonics Institute
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
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