Did you know that there is a such thing as burying without embalming? This is referred to as natural or green burial. Green Burial is typically done in the UK. When green burial is done, the body is put directly in a body bag and buried, without using any chemicals. This is done so that the body can recycle naturally. Green Burial should not be allowed because it causes foul odors, has the potential of spreading diseases, and can attract animals to the body due to the smells. While people may have religious or personal reasons for advocating burying without embalming, the health and sanitary risks are too great to ignore.
An immense part of why green burial shouldn’t be allowed is because diseases can be spread. The article by PAHO titled The Infectious Disease Risks From Dead Bodies Following Natural Burial states, “To those in close contact with the dead such as rescue workers there is a health risk. From chronic infectious diseases which those killed may have been suffering from and which spreads by direct contact, includes Hepatitis B and C, HIV, enteric intestinal pamogens, tuberculosis, cholera and others.” If these diseases are spread by direct contact, if a rescue worker, does have a disease that they caught from working in a cemetery, it will be easily spread. Also the the diseases that are spread have killed people, it is very dangerous, and people put their life at risk without even knowing. The diseases are only spread when green burial is done because embalming stops the spread of disease, and also the bodies are only buried in a body bag not a coffin when green burial is done, so there is nothing to conserve the body. News article Purpose Green Burial Cemetery claims “Embalming may be necessary for the bodies that ...
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...tery grounds, more than in the embalming process. The chemicals can pollute the water. An article by EPA states “Pollution such as chemicals spilled on the ground, bacteria and nutrients from livestock areas, and pesticides and nutrients from land can also seep into ground water” This doesn’t occur in embalming because the coffins protect the chemicals from dripping out.
Green Burial shouldn’t be allowed because of the spread of disease, the smell, and animals digging up the bodies.By avoiding green burial we eliminate an extra route for transmission of diseases. We are also taking into consideration sanitary means, bodies that are not embalmed tend to smell and attract animals, which creates an unsanitary environment. Ultimately, Green Burial causes many cleanliness issues and health concerns. Green burial can prove to be very dangerous and should not be allowed!
In the past four decades the cost of a funeral service has risen 1,328% (Boring) and that’s not just because Morticians wanted to out of pure greed. One must take into account that modern mortuaries are much more of a business than before. Prior to 1970, the majority of funeral homes were were independent, family run. Today about 14% of funeral homes are run by a publicly traded corporation (Boring) meaning there’s a plethora of capital involved in these businesses now. The homes are built better and by professionals rather than by individuals with some tools, the home’s are extremely more sanitary since there’s more than likely no one living in these funeral homes unlike before, and the quality of the products these services are providing is greater than before.
illogical to some, the reasons for embalming the dead made perfect sense to the Egyptians. Mummification kept corpses in a desiccate, pristine condition; the body must be suitable for the owner’s spirit to return for a rendezvous, as per Egyptian belief (Evans, 20)....
When someone dies their bones are burned and crushed into ash and consumed by the relatives. It puts a persons soul at peace to find a resting place within their family, it would be an abomination to bury them in the ground. Once this ceremony is finished the person is gone. Their name or person is never to be mentioned again.
During the Middle and Upper Paleolithic era, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis started to create works of art such as cave paintings, rock art and jewelry as well as religious behavior through burial rights and rituals. These burials are important since it signifies a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life,” (Lieberman). These burial rights and rituals can be dated back to the Middle Paleolithic era, overlapping with the first appearance of Homo neanderthalensis. While it may be disputed, evidence suggests that the Homo neanderthalensis were the first to intentionally bury the dead in shallow graves along with what is assumed to be their possessions (Wikipedia).
The time period for Egyptian mummification is from their Predynastic Period (4650-3050 BC) until after the New Kingdom (1069 BC-395 AD). The Egyptians believed in Polytheism, which the religion of worshiping more than one god. Since they believed in more than one god, they believed in Osiris, the earthbound god of the dead, and Re, the sun god. These two gods were critical to the Egyptians, because they counted on those two gods to lead people into the afterlife. In order to achieve the afterlife, a proper burial had to take place for the dead. The Table of Sinuhe, a twelfth dynasty text, described the preparation for a funeral for someone who is elite in Egypt, which included: constructing the grave on an elite location, with both a public chapel and a private burial chamber. The Egyptians did this to preserve the name of the deceased, and their objects that were given to the deceased to help guide them to the afterlife. The family of the deceased then needed to choose which of the three embalming processes was right for them. There were three types of mummification processes: there was the most expensive and most elaborate process; the second way contained some of the steps from the first way to embalm a person, but was very limited; and the last way would be the cheapest and least elaborate way to embalm someone. The embalmer was astute man, who was respected and had the same privileges as the priests did. Nevertheless, this belief in life after death affected the population of Egypt and their art, architecture, technology, and their legal practices, which would be that no one could do any damage to a dead body. Historians find all this information from two writers, who wrote different pieces of text on mummification.
They believe that if this is not done, the dead person may become a wandering ghost, unable to properly live after death and ultimately a danger to those who remain alive. African peoples have a common custom of removing the dead body through a hole in the wall of a house instead of through the door. It is said that this will make it difficult for the dead person to remember their way back to the living especially because the hole in the wall is immediately closed. Sometimes the body is even removed feet first. A zigzag path may be taken in order to get to the burial site, or thorns scattered along the way, or even a barrier hoisted at the grave itself because the dead are believed to strengthen the living. Others take special steps to ensure that the dead are easily able to return to their homes. Some people are even buried under or next to their homes. It is believed that at the graves, the spirits hover over on the earth and are restless until they are brought home which is seen as an extremely dangerous situation for the family.Family members even take some of the earth covering the grave and put it in a bottle and proceed home with the assurance that the deceased relative is accompanying them to look after the family as an
There are three main, practical reasons defending the significance of embalming. The first is to restore the body to a familiar state, which has been proven to help families mentally and psychologically cope with the loss. Another reason is to rid the body of hazardous elements that live and grow in decaying tissue. It is still unknown whether embalming is effective at complete sanitation and protecting the public. The last main reason behind embalming is to preserve the body so a proper service and burial can be held.
Today the society is looking for ways to ease life and to find solutions for problems which oppress our lives and make it hard to live through. Because of many reasons, the traditional burials in this century are becoming a problem. (Prothero,2001). The fact that they cover a lot of land to build cemeteries and other things that are attached to these traditional burials is enough for us to search for a practical solution. About a century ago the term "cremation" was unknown to many people. It is believed that it began to be practiced during the early Stone Age and still exists today. Since that time cremations have been made all over the world, but they have never been so popular as they are now in this century. First and the most important to us all are the costs which are much less expensive for cremations than for funerals . Second, cremation does not contaminate the earth and cause a foul odor in the ground. Third, a lot of land is saved which means that it has an environmental impact.
She opens up her essay by saying “How surprised [Yorick] would be to see how his counterpart of today is whisked off to a funeral parlor and is in short order sprayed, sliced, pierced, pickled, trussed, trimmed, creamed, waxed, painted, rouged, and neatly dressed transformed from a common corpse into a Beautiful Memory Picture.”(Mitford) Funerals are meant to protect people from seeing what kind of toll death has on their loved one; to remove the scars of being human. Kubler-Ross touches on this when she says “The more we are making advancements in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death. How is this possible? We use euphemisms, we make the dead look as if they were asleep” (Kubler-Ross) which connects to her opinion that death is feared and people take responsibility when a loved one dies, even if they had no impact on their death. The eradication of the sense of death is the key reason why the deceased are embalmed. Clifton Bryant discusses that the reason why people want to have their dead embalmed is because of “death anxiety”, that it is the collective phrase for all the different and complex fears of death. He later states that death anxiety is why we tend to have “death denial” and why we tend to avoid it wholly. “Likewise, the use of metaphors or euphemisms that serve to soften the harshness of death (e.g., passed away, deceased, expired) clearly represents a culturally approved attempt to deny or camouflage death's impact on our daily lives.”(Bryant) This reflects well on the point Mitford makes, when she says “[The funeral director] put on a well-oiled performance in which the concept of death played no part whatsoever” (Mitford) Kubler-Ross feels that death being ever increasingly more taboo the more
According to the textbook, memorial services are becoming increasingly popular in many Protestant churches. This coincides with my family’s faith; we belong to a local Presbyterian church. The memorial will take place at The West Metro Chapel, part of the cremation package through Newcomer Funeral Homes and Crematory. This will reduce the costs significantly, consolidating the facility rental fee to only $675. Considering their will be no open casket or closed casket display the cremation will take place shortly after death, making the date of the service more flexible ensuring everyone who wants to attend the service can make it. Cremating the body will also be universally ideal for any condition the body is in from the cause of
In As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, the coffin is an important inanimate object. After the death of Addie Bundren, the Bundren family embarks on a 40-mile journey to Jefferson to respect her wish to be buried there. Cash Bundren builds the coffin while Addie is dying, the coffin goes through many obstacles with the Bundrens during the journey, and the overall objective of the journey is to bury the coffin. Although the coffin literally serves as a box that contains the corpse of Addie, the coffin also serves as the central symbol of the family's love and gratitude towards her as well as their instability.
The subject of death and dying is a common occurrence in the health care field. There are many factors involved in the care of a dying patient and various phases the patient, loved ones and even the healthcare professional may go through. There are many controversies in health care related to death, however much of it roots from peoples’ attitudes towards it. Everyone handles death differently; each person has a right to their own opinions and coping mechanisms. Health care professionals are very important during death related situations; as they are a great source of support for a patient and their loved ones. It is essential that health care professionals give ethical, legal and honest care to their patients, regardless of the situation.
At first the deceased was simply buried in the ground and because of the arid environment it would stay preserved if buried in a dry, and sandy spot. The bodies would be in a curled up position with a few simple goods. However the royals and rich upper class individuals wanted something more. They then changed their mummification process to be more elaborate, however not everyone could afford that so there were cheaper options available. There were three levels of quality burial procedures which depended on the price, as it got cheaper the quality
to the Pet cemetary. Louis answers her honestly and later Rachel and him have an
Their body is placed in the cremation component and then subjected to extremely high heat, which reduces the biological matter to dust and some dried bone. That is then ground to a sand type substance.