Case Analysis: The Profit In Death

The Profit in Death We all know that living is an expensive experience. You’re required to pay taxes, pay for food, and pay for shelter. The counterpart of living, however, can also be quite expensive. In fact, Death is one of the most profitable events in life generating about 15 billion dollars a year (Qtd. In Crawford). With profit, however, comes greed and the Mortuary business has it’s fair share of corruption. Although a profit is necessary to maintain a business the extent to which some morticians go to maximize their profits is disgusting. While laws that Morticians must follow exist, their lack of enforcement renders them useless. That being said, these issues need to be addressed and solved. The business of death overall has its

Can I do this?” Aside from the broad question of death’s profitability being ethical there is the question of are the practices within the business ethical and up to standard? The business of disposing of the deceased hasn’t always been an established one. Multiple times throughout history, people have taken advantage of people’s grief when a loved one has died and this was done in many ways. Some people would simply claim they buried their loved ones when in reality they dumped their bodies off elsewhere. Others would claim that they are caring for their loved ones dead body in a funeral home when in reality they are neglecting the body and taking your money. Luckily, in modern times we don’t typically have these issues well not as much as we use to anyway. Now, instead, we have different problems, the main one being that Morticians will typically offer the premium options available for their services before any other ones. This often used tactic is in clear violation of the Federal Trade Commission’s rule which states that funeral homes must show a price listing of caskets and other services (small business). These Morticians see that this person is in significant grief over the death of their loved one and will take advantage

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. That being said, the industrialization of the Mortuary business is only responsible for a tiny fraction of the inflated costs of funeral services. According to Perianne Boring of Forbes the reason for why the funerals, specifically caskets are so inflated in price is ‘Funeral service providers can set their own price for caskets, but their prices must remain consistent from person to person, even if that casket is 200% more expensive than the funeral home down the street”. As stated by Boring, Morticians can charge whatever they want for caskets so long as they are consistent from customer to customer which is fair, however, still unethical given