Funeral Association Scaring People Away From Green Burials?

Funeral homes are being scared away from “green” burial options by an indemnification form the National Funeral Directors Association included in one of their recent magazine issues, according to an open letter posted on Funeral Consumers Alliance. The language basically suggests that if you don’t use mainstream funeral methods, in terms of the embalming and type of coffin used, you won’t be able to show grandma because she’ll be all rotted, the grave will turn into a sinkhole, and you might not be able to find where the body was buried years down the road. Here’s the specific language they’re using…

5. ADVISORY:
The Green Funeral choice is usually made for environmental reasons and a desire for a simpler disposition. It is an appropriate and meaningful choice for certain families. However, it does preclude certain options and poses several risks that the REPRESENTATIVE has been advised of and is now acknowledging. The REPRESENTATIVE has been advised by the FUNERAL HOME that with a Green Funeral the FUNERAL HOME can provide no assurances regarding the appearance or the condition of DECEDENT’s remains, that there will not be a public visitation or viewing of the DECEDENT, that there are possible health risks posed by handling an unembalmed body, that there can be substantial risks of physical injury to pallbearers from holding, carrying, and transporting a body in a container that may not be designed to hold the weight or to be safely lifted and carried, that burial of the body in a grave plot without an outer burial container may lead to the ground settling and sinking over the grave, that the body may not be able to be disinterred and moved at a later date, and that in later years it may be difficult or impossible to locate the grave due to the lack of a permanent marker or monument.

Over at Funeral Consumers Alliance, they translate this into what they think it really means…

NFDA Lawyer Uses Scare Tactics on Green Burial Customers [Funeral Consumers Alliance]

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