What is Cremation?
It is the process of reducing the body to ashes and bone fragments through the use of intense heat. The process usually takes two to four hours. Depending on the size of the body, the cremated remains weigh about three to nine pounds. Is there a trend toward cremation?
Yes. The percentage of cremations in the United States is rapidly rising each year because of the considerable expense of traditional funerals, the diminishing space available for cemeteries, and increasing environmental concerns. In a number of areas in the nation, particularly on the West Coast and in Florida, cremation is the preferred method of disposition.
Over 90% of FCA members throughout the U.S. choose cremation because they seek a simple, dignified and affordable option. In England and Japan, where cemetery space is at a premium, the cremation rate is also close to 90%.
Is a casket required for cremation?
No, a casket is never required for cremation. However, most crematories do require that the body be enclosed in some form of rigid container. Under the Federal Trade Commission Rule of 1984, all mortuaries must make available to the customer an unfinished wooden box or similar inexpensive cremation container. Customers may make or furnish their own suitable container.
How much does cremation cost?
If an undertaker is used to transport the body, obtain permits, and file the death certificate, the fee for services may run well over $1,000. If a visitation or a funeral service is held before cremation, the charges will be higher.
Many FCA affiliates offer members cremation services provided by licensed funeral homes at costs considerably less than the national average. Families who care for their own dead can use crematories directly at charges from $100 to $300.
Since 1984, all undertakers are required to explain the firm's charges in detail before a funeral purchase. You also may ask for these prices over the phone.
Do I have to hire an undertaker?
Possibly not. Most states permit religious groups or private citizens to obtain the necessary death certificate and permits for transit and disposition.
Is a funeral service necessary?
Although visitation and a funeral service with a body present may be held before cremation, many have found it more helpful to have a memorial service without the body present. It is less costly and family and friends will appreciate an opportunity to pay tribute to the memory of a special person.
Can a casket be rented?
In many parts of the country, mortuaries will rent an attractive casket to a family that wants to have the body present for visitation or for a funeral service preceding cremation. After the service, the body is transferred to an inexpensive cremation container. Significant savings may be realized by using a rental casket.
What can be done with cremated remains?
Several choices exist: they can be placed in a niche in a columbarium, buried, scattered, or kept by the family. Cremated remains are sterile and pose no health hazard. In fact, new options are being offered each year, such as artificial reefs in the ocean into which cremated remains have been mixed.
A columbarium is an assembly of niches designed to hold containers of cremated remains. It is most often located in a mausoleum with a cemetery. Some churches provide niches within the church or as a part of a garden wall.
Earth burial can be in a cemetery, either in a regular grave or in a special urn garden. Many cemeteries will permit two or three containers in one adult-size plot. However, the family, if so inclined, can bury the cremains anywhere it wishes, with the property owner's permission.
Scattering cremains over some area that had significance to the deceased has an appeal for many and is legal in most jurisdictions. Although there are commercial firms which will handle the cremated remains for a fee, most families prefer to do this themselves. Remains should be processed by the crematory to reduce all fragments to fine particles.
Must an urn be purchased?
No. Crematories return the cremated remains in a metal, plastic, or cardboard container that is perfectly adequate for burial, shipping, or placing in a columbarium. The family may prefer an aesthetic or other appropriate receptacle. Urns usually cost in excess of $150, but alternative containers are equally suitable.
Are "cremation societies" the same as "memorial societies"?
No. The most important difference is that memorial societies are not-for-profit consumer groups which are democratically controlled, whereas direct cremation "societies" operate for profit. They masquerade as nonprofit by using "society" in their name and by charging a "membership" fee. (In fact, this what prompted us to change our name to Funeral Consumers Alliance. Many of our affiliates are doing likewise.)
Many full-service mortuaries cooperate with our affiliates to provide members with a range of funeral options. However, if there is no memorial society (or Funeral Consumers Alliance) in your area, you may find some of the direct cremation firms considerably less expensive than their competition.
Click here for a guide to Shopping for a Simple Cremation.
How do religious groups view cremation?
Most religions permit cremation. Since Vatican II Council in 1964, the Code of Canon Law allows Roman Catholics a choice between burial and cremation. The Greek and Jewish Orthodox faiths oppose cremation, as do some others. Here's what the Rev. Billy Graham had to say about the issue:
"At the resurrection it will not make any difference whether a person's body has been buried or cremated. God knows how to raise the body, either in the resurrection of life or the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29)." For his complete answer, click here.
"Preneed" is a term coined by the funeral industry to describe the arrangement and payment of a funeral prior to death. Obviously, if you are to have any say in it, you must plan in advance of your death. "Prearrangement" is also used interchangeably with "preneed".
Based on what you told me, it sounds like there's some misinformation, but I can't quite tease out where it came from. Here are my guesses:
1. There's no state law that says a body must be embalmed before cremation. It's a bit more complicated. Some states require that a body be buried, cremated, embalmed, OR refrigerated within a certain amount of time. So, it could have been the case that the body couldn't be cremated quickly enough to meet the state's embalming or refrig. requirement, and the funeral home didn't have refrigeration. If so, that's unfortunate, and a good argument for why all funeral homes should be required to offer refrigeration.
2. It's also possible the funeral home lied to you about a nonexistent state law. If so, you should file a complaint with your state's funeral board, with the Federal Trade Commission, and a copy to Funeral Consumers Alliance. If you give me more details and a location, I can help you with that.
Also, were you given a printed, itemized price list to choose from before you finalized the arrangements? Did you get an itemized receipt? If so, were there services on that receipt that you didn't ask for, and that you wouldn't have chosen?
Certainly a simple cremation should be much less expensive than a full-service burial, but I'd need to know exactly what you chose - or what services you might have been forced to buy - before I could give an opinion on what happened.
Josh Slocum
Executive Director
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Funeral Consumers Alliance staff
Thank you, Carol
FCA
Let me try to answer your questions one by one. Since I'm not sure what state the person lives in, I can't tell you what paperwork is required for a family-directed funeral. In most states, you need a death certificate signed by the attending physician, you need to file it with the health dept., and you need to get a burial/transit/cremation permit from the health dept. If you tell me the state, I can be more specific.
You wrote:
"Now, upon death, after EMT determines death has occurred, 2)is body transported to a hospital for examining?"
REPLY: You really shouldn't be calling 911 and the EMTs unless it's an emergency (which death is not - EMTs are expensive and they shouldn't be tied up with death calls). If the death is expected (old age, long illness), you don't need to call the police or the medical examiner. If the person was under a doctor's care, alert the doctor and arrange to have the doctor fill out the death certificate. If the person is in hospice or a hospital, there is also no need to call the police or ambulance.
If the death is unexpected or in any way unusual, then yes, you should call the police. But don't call 911 for a routine death, or the EMTs may try to resuscitate the person and bring him to the hospital. Unpleasant an unnecessary.
No, routine deaths don't go to the hospital for "examination." If the death is suspicious, the medical examiner would have control of the body for investigation.
You wrote:
"can the family go directly to a crematorium for cremation after the hospital, then receive the ashes and send to Arlington or other cemetery?"
REPLY: In most states, it's perfectly legal to transport the body yourself, as long as the death cert. and burial transit permit are completed. In some states, crematories are separate from funeral homes and they do business directly with the public. In other states, funeral homes own the crematories. In still other situations, crematories do business only for funeral directors. I can't advise you unless I know what state you're in.
You wrote:
"4) In talking with the Arlington Cemetery staff that the funeral home will handle everything, but this is if we use a funeral home, I guess. "
REPLY: Yes. In this case, "funeral home" would also refer to any cremation business that you've contracted with. I see nothing to stop you from bringing the ashes to Arlington yourself, however, unless they've got picky rules about working directly with families. Best to ask the Arlington staff.
You wrote:
"And, does our counties have information sheets or booklets of things they require family to do before issuing a death certificate."
Unfortunately, most states and counties don't have this helpful information in an easy format. We can tell you what you need though, once we know what state you're in.
Best,
Josh Slocum
FCA Executive Director
5) If an EMT has detrmined death has occurred, can't we just call a crematorium for transportation of body to be cremated?
It does seem that in addition to the cremation cost, a funeral home will handlle for a fee some of the incidentals of obtaining the death certificate, "packaging the body" for the cremation, getting the body there, receiving the remains and giving to famiily. Is this all there is to it?
If we wanted to handle all services ourselves, how do we get the body to the cremaatory site. And, does our counties have information sheets or booklets of things they require family to do before issuing a death certificate.
I've asked a lot of questions, but I don't see the answers in anything of the sites I've visited on line.
Any help you can provide is most appreciated.