On death and dying. Part One.

"After the moment of death, we should get the hell out of the way, with our bodies decently planted in the earth to nourish other forms of life- weeds, flowers, shrubs, tree, which support other forms of life, which support the ongoing human pageant-the lives of children. That seems good enough to me." -Edward Abbey, who was buried in his sleeping bag under a pile of rocks in the Arizona desert in March 1989

This book is a must read for everyone that is going to die, maybe not yet, but eventually. The book covers things that I would of never thought of or even considered. Lots of insight, laws and many options for the death. I will cover the two most common: burial and cremation. All the below will be taken from the book.

EDITED: This is really long, so there will be another post about cremation and it will be shorter as well. Just the basics.. (PS- I took my own photo of my book, which I do for all my books, but have yet to upload it, look later for that photo to be with the cremation post.) I may add more later too on this post, as there are sooooooo many things in this book that I just think everyone should know.. This will be part one.

Funeral and Burial

A quick break down of some average basic charges: funeral handling fee $1395, transporting body from hospital to funeral home $205, embalming $825, hair styling $90, make up $50, dressing the body $135, holding a two hour viewing $410, Priest and a rosary $100, soloist/music $100, funeral home coordinating with the church $610, hearse $215, family car $195, extra family cars $95 each, getting the priest to the cemetery $60, van to move flowers from funeral home to cemetery $95, Police escort $150, funeral home coordinating with cemetery for tent and chairs $350, guest book $40 and flyers $30, death certificates $6 each

That is some basic To DO's and we are already at $4500+ and that is not even counting the big ticket items: casket and plots.

Grave: $130 for foundation, $900 for backhoe to start hole and cover it later, $150 one time maintenance fee, $665 grave liner, and if you consider an outer burial container, or a vault $$$

Average funeral cost in America $10,000

Embalming is NOT required by law. Most people choose to do so to preserve the body for viewing. You can however, ask the funeral home if they would be willing to place the body in refrigeration until the funeral, for a cost until closer to the funeral. This will slow but not prevent decomposing.

About half of all states require that a body be preserved if not buried or cremated within a few days of death, but permits methods of preserving other than embalming, like refrigeration ($50 a day) or dry ice. That said, a funeral home is under no obligation to handle an unembalmed corpse.

You can order (for overnight delivery) caskets online for usually for 25% less. By law, funeral homes are required to accept it, and without charging a handling fee.

Pall bears can be hired by the home for $50 each with a normal 6-8 per coffin $300-400.

Embalmers boost their odds of contracting brain, colon, kidney, and other cancers due to all the toxins they overly expose themselves to.

Tuberculosis bacilli may remain alive in an embalmed corpse.

No matter how it's sealed inside a coffin, a corpse, even an embalmed one, will eventually decompose.

No state law requires that a body be buried in a coffin or other container. Regular cemeteries generally insist that a casket be used and that the casket be placed in a vault. (From a part on "Backyard Burial" will be addressed in another post)

The state of Hawaii will NOT embalm bodies infected with more than a half dozen diseases, including smallpox and yellow fever.

Random things done to the body during embalming: eyes are glued shut, jaws are sewn together, cotton is stuffed in open holes... yes, all of them. They also use a pinkish colored dye formulated to stain the body tissue to a lifelike tint.

After autopsies, all the organs are just place back in the abdomen except the brain, then stitched back up.

In one account in the book, Roughly 120 gallons of untreated funeral waste after the embalming, goes down the sink and into the sewer. In addition to running water, the waste held a mixture of body fluids, whole blood, fecal matter, liberated counts of internal organs, and potentially chemicals from the embalming solution, including formaldehyde, phenol, and menthol. Also going down the drain could be any unknown pathogens of any disease the body may have unknowingly had.

Check your own state laws to see where your funeral parlors are on getting rid of their waste. Makes me think TWICE about using tap water!

I will post later about cremation.