Ohio Funeral Home Sues, Wants To Liquefy Bodies

[Purveyor]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The first U.S. funeral home to publicly offer a cremation alternative that dissolves bodies with lye and heat has filed a lawsuit alleging Ohio regulators don't have authority to block it from using the procedure.

The National Funeral Directors Association says Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus is the only U.S. funeral business offering alkaline hydrolysis.

A state board recently determined that's not an acceptable way to dispose of bodies, and the Ohio Department of Health issued a memo that blocks the funeral process if that method is used.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday says those decisions have kept the funeral home from using the method on a woman's remains as requested by her husband.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LIQUEFYING_BODIES_LAWSUIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-24-11-48-51

[dbackjon]

1. I think this is called being Hoffed

[WatsonT]

2. Weird, but I don't see a problem with it

[RKP5637]

3. I wonder what they do with what's left, flush it down the drain. Gross procedure IMO. n/t

[Godhumor]

5. I'm more worried that someone, human or animal, drinks it

Which is one of the reasons I hope is why the procedure is being held up.

[RKP5637]

6. It reminds me of something right out of a Vincent Price movie or a Stephen King novel. n/t

[tammywammy]

14. They've already been doing this for years with animals n/t

[Rebubula]

17. They store bodies...

...in formaldehyde. How would this be different?

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of common liquids that, if ingested, would be harmful\fatal.

[DJ13]

4. New! Soylent Red Bull Energy Drink!

Now with extra Grandma!

:scared:

[Gold Metal Flake]

7. It's got electrolytes!

They will probably use it to feed GMO corn.

[nc4bo]

11. Now that's REALLY gross although....

we all end up dust particles anyway and before there were concrete boxes to put ourselves in, we'd just crumble back into dust and someone may grow some corn or poison ivy on us anyway....

[nc4bo]

9. Ugh that is gross x 1000

What in the world is wrong with just doing things the way they've been doing them? Cremation causes climate change? Gonna read the article and see if there's a good answer.

[csziggy]

27. It usees a lot of gas to heat the body enough to fully burn it

And end up with only some bone fragments.

According to National Geographic, American funerals are responsible each year for the felling of 30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid. Even cremation is an environmental horror story, with the incineration process emitting many a noxious substance, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and climate-changing carbon dioxide.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eco-afterlife-green-buria

There are now "green" alternatives, but this liquefying process doesn't sound much like one.

Another burial option piquing consumers' interest is resomation (also known as "bio-cremation"), which emits no carbon. In the United States, only a handful of states have approved resomation, and California is the latest to consider legalizing it. Resomation involves placing human remains, water, and potassium hydroxide into a stainless steel tank and heating it for several hours until the remains melt. While some of the residue can be placed in an urn, the rest is recycled through the sewage system, giving the practice the nickname "toilet burial." Joe Sehee, executive director of the Green Burial Council, questions whether it is environmentally friendly to flush what may be more than 100 pounds of human residue through the sewage system.
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/26/green-burial-options-increase.html

Here are places that offer information on green burials:
Green Burial Council
http://www.greenburialcouncil.org/

Grave Matters
www.gravematters.us

Natural Burial Company
http://www.naturalburialcompany.com/

Edited to fix formatting.

[Maru Kitteh]

19. "now with extra grandma"

Yeah..... thanks for that. I have to go grocery shopping now.




must


clean



brain



eeeeeeeeeeeee

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. They should bring back the Duzy just for this post.

:rofl:

[donco]

24. A shot of Cheney

on the rocks.

[Modern_Matthew]

8. Decision is up to person's will/family. Shouldn't even be a government issue. nt

[markpkessinger]

21. On the whole, I agree...PROVIDED that

...the chosen means of disposal of the remains does not pose any threat to public health.

[secondwind]

10. Good way to hide evidence in the case of foul play.

[tammywammy]

13. Not any more so than cremation. n/t

[tammywammy]

12. I read about this technique many years ago when I read "Stiff" by Mary Roach

Very intersting book. They already did the alkaline hydrolysis at the time with animals. It's a very "green" burial.

http://chemistry.about.com/b/2008/05/10/alkaline-hydrolysis-dissolving-bodies-with-lye.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4828249&page=1

[Godhumor]

Was this in Stiff? I'll have to reread it--love her books (Spook and Boink are very good, too.). n/t

[tammywammy]

16. It was in the book.

The book's still good the second or third go around.

A few months after I read it, I had a really good friend starting anatomy in medical school. I think her entire medical class ended up reading it. :)

[Taverner]

15. We need to do like the Fremen of Dune do with their corpses....

Water's scarce ya know

[Gold Metal Flake]

18. Makes it easier to fertilize GMO corn.

[badtoworse]

20. So instead of an urn, you'd get a jug?

[tammywammy]

25. The liquified part can go down the drain

You'd still be left with approximately the same about of debris that you'd get from cremation.

[SoCalDem]

22. Somebody's been watching too many episodes of "Bones" & "Dexter"

:puke:

[Permanut]

26. So with a huge blender

you could turn Grandma into a smoothie. Sorry, just getting into the black humor of this thread a little too much, I think.