A Serious Undertaking

Nice to see the green movement has finally caught up to thousands of years of Jewish tradition. A plain pine box is certainly nothing new!

I have been a funeral director and embalmer for the past 26 years and our family has own its own business for the past 7 years. I would like to thank Mr. Slocum and the FCA for providing information to consumers. I do not agree with their stance on every issue but I know that the more truthful information that is put out for the general public provides a win win situation for everyone concerned. I have had the pleasure to work with a community college in our area for many years providing tours to many classes during this time. I always encourage each person attend to ask questions not only of myself but of other funeral homes in the area. I feel the more information the they receive the better prepared they are should the need arise and they are called upon to make funeral arrangements for someone in their family. It is true that the cost of funeral merchandise and services can be expensive but incomparasion to other professional charges I can say the our charges are in line for the services we provide. We are also required to give anyone a copy of our general price, list which itemizes all of our charges allowing everyone to pick and choose the services they would like us to provide, who ask for one. It is true that emotions sometimes plays a part in the selection of merchandise and services and that is where being an ethical funeral director comes into play and I remind the family that I am with that their life will continue after the choices they make at our funeral home and to keep in mind other expenses that they will be facing both short term and for many years to come. In closing my advise is to make decisions about funeral arrangements long before they are needed and make sure that your family is aware of your wishes.

Pine caskets are hardly new, they have been traditional for Jews for thousands of years. Nice to see the Green movement has moved itself all the way up to Torah times.

sugarbritches,

1. This article was not "Mr. Slocum's article." I was quoted in it; I did not write it.

2. Embalming does not ???protect the living,??? as you claim. It does not matter how many times you were taught that in mortuary school, medical science disagrees with you. This is not (or should not be) personal, and it???s not a matter of opinion - it???s fact. If you???re truly interested in facts, please see FCA???s position paper ???Dead Bodies and Disease: The Danger That Doesn???t Exist???:

Please read it carefully, and please note we back up our claims with data from the Centers for Disease Control, The Pan-American Health Organization (a division of the World Health Organization), and The British Public Health Laboratory Service. What evidence do you have - evidence, not your opinion - to back up the claim that embalming protects the living?


Josh Slocum
Executive Director, Funeral Consumers Alliance

Having worked for a family owned funeral home for many years and being married to a funeral director, I take offense to Mr. Slocum's article. Never have I seen a family pressured to buy something they could not afford. The family is always asked to stay within their means. They go into the selection room without a funeral director so they can privately make their choice. We offer preneed so that a family can make those decisions at a time when they are calm and not under stress or grieving. In our community the funeral home and it's employees are treated with kindness and respect because that is how they have always treated their customers. As to families cleaning the bodies of their loved ones, have you ever seen someone killed in an accident or someone who has taken their own life? Even funeral directors have a difficult time with some situations. I certainly would not want to have to take care of my loved one under those circumstances. In our state a doctor is required along with a funeral director to sign the death certificate. But this does not hold up the release of a body for burial. Embalming protects the living. Many viruses and bacteria do not die when the body dies so people can still be infected. Embalming kills these airborne virues and bacteria. We are not predatory or aggressive. I am proud when I say my husband is a funeral director. He cares for the living and the dead.

I agree with many that funeral directors take advantage of families at their time of need. If many of you don't know or remember, quite a few years ago, funeral homes were charged with over charging families for their services. Because of that, funeral homes are required to give you an itemized list of charges for each of the services that are charged for. As for the little boy that belonged to parents that were in SLC visiting, they had every right to take their child home for buriel. I was fortunate when I lost my baby at full term. My husband and I were allowed to take our son to another state to be buried. All we had to pay for was the funeral home for the casket and the embalming and sign a paper that said we were allowed to transport him over state line. Granted it was hard taking our son in our car but we wanted to bury him somewhere else and we had that right to do that. We were blessed. So even though we had a good experience with a funeral director, there are those out there that do take advantage of those in grief.

I have been a funeral director for over 27 years. While I am away as with any other profession and polltics, there are good and bad in every area. But I am proud to know that I have always treated every family as if I were on the other side of the desk. I have on many, many occasions talked families into lesser casket costs or services that will keep within what they have available. In some years, the writeoffs for uncollected bills crossed well over the 40-50k. I know of no other business that does this practice. While I wish to be sensative to those who have or are going through a loss, the body can do many things depending on the cause, or manner of death. There can be much more that a "little fluid". Mr. Slocum in my opinion is reckless with the grief of families to suggest you throw down some plastic and wash the body. I have always tried to involve the family in the hair dressing, clothing, make-up, etc. of thier family member. But there are also many things that should and can only be taken care of with the body in the confines of a funeral home embalming room with specialized tools and devices that the Funeral Director has at his knowledge and disposal. I would gladly go do those things Free to a family than ever suggest that they do it at home, and put down some plastic in case. There comes a point when we care for our cause more that the heart and grief of a human being, and I think we have crossed it here. I have no problem with wood caskets, etc. but I do have a great concern for the over all care of a grieving family. The body is burried in a few days, but the grief and experiences are relived for a long time. Mr. Slocum's suggestions are not what I would want any of my families to have to work through along with everything else loss brings. Posted by Cardell Sackett 7-5-08

There are bad funeral homes and there are good ones. I am a female embalmer and I own a funeral home in a small town that was once owned by SCI. I worked for SCI one year before I bought the place and watched it fall to the ground. It took me three years to build it back up.By doing so we lowered our prices, give baby services for free and give discounts for teenagers. We also let our families know that they can perform their own Memorial Services without the the funeral home to save costs. Most families make their own programs to save money. When a family member comes to dress we do not charge them like most funeral homes do. I agree there are a lot of charges that are uncalled for but it does cost to keep a funeral home open. Our traditional burials starting cost is about $3500 and our cemeteries are city owned and the most expensive plot is $400 so why can't other cemeteries do the same. In Arizona it is not required to be buried in a casket or vault, in most cases it is the cemeteries requirement and if they don't mow the grass how can they make you buy a vault. When I first arrived to this funeral home not one cemetery required a vault by my competitor and SCI pushed the cemeteries to make it required which benefit the funeral home not the city. I fought for those who had purchased pre-paid burial plans that did not include a vault because it was not required at the time of sale. So when the death took place their family had to purchase a vault. So I brought this before the cemeteries and told them this was not right just because you changed your rules. So those who purchased their burial plans before the rules changed did not have to have a vault so now does this make it fair for those who didnt purchase a plan? No because the vault keeps the ground from collasping over a period of time when the dirt settles. There is no grass in any of these cemeteries and they have immates go fill in graves that have sunk. Don't always take the funeral homes word research your rights and regulations for each state and cemetery.

I recently submitted a similar story to our local newspaper telling people that there were other options than the traditional one (funeral director) and the local funeral home was so outraged that they demanded to talk to my supervisor and asked for a retraction. While my supervisor found nothing wrong with the original story, she felt that we needed to placate them and required me to write a letter to the editor answer the funeral director's letter to the editor. I simpled stated that I was not endorsing the other method only letting people know that they had the option and that the local funeral director had been helpful to many of our residents. This seemed to satisfy them. However, what they didn't know was that the funeral director commented that he didn't want people to know because it would affect his livelyhood. And it all the back and forth letters in the paper only served to reinforce the different option to the people who have contacted me wanting to know what all the fuss was about.

My family has found that home town independent funeral businesses are the most honest and will help walk you through the process. We have opted for cremation and 4 of the last five family members to die were cremated and buried in our mausoleum. We have decided on the method, the means and the cost for each member. Your family should form an agreement to deal with the details and the cost. It works better when then the time comes. Also pick a funeral home with an impeccable reputation you???ll feel better when you look back at the whole event.

Perception is what sells, and affected kindness and concern has to appear real to charge the prices they do. Recently, my son was crushed to death. Shipping, handling, and two funeral homes later; $14,000.
You can afford to do alot of smiling and hand wringing in sympathy for that much and that's to say, the funeral director is related family. Fortunately the cemetery belongs to our family or it would have cost another 2-$3k more.
Nothing wrong with doing your own.

I some how might have been misunderstood, I am in no way knocking any fureral home or director, what so ever. I unfornatually have had resent contact with our local funeral home and the director in no way ever pushed the family members for anything. And I am sure they get paid about the same as our school teachers never enough. What I ment by Bio was any leakage that was not preserved correctly from the body.
Where as our funeral homes make sure all is right.

No one has mentioned the high cost of a cemetary plot---talk about expensive real estste. There are many national cemetaries around the country where honorablly discharged veterans and their wives can be burried free. This valuable benefit is done as a way of saying thank you for their service to the country. The V.A. takes over at the cemetary gate---all costs before that point are paid by the family of the deceased.

5th post, especially for the funeral directors here -

shonee wrote:

"Comment: I have to disagree with how the morticians are portrayed by Slocum. When my father passed away in February the mortician was very kind. Never once did I feel I was being taken advantage of. I am a smart person not stupid.
I was very pleased with the service given. If anything I think the poor mortician tried to
down sale the to upsale."


Some funeral directors here have protested my characterization of the funeral industry. I'd like to respond:

1. As you can imagine, reporters only have space to quote so much from any one source, and you can't infer a speaker's entire outlook from one media article (though Brendan Kylie and Newsweek did a good job and I have no complaints).

2. It is true that there are good funeral directors who make an honest living offering good service at reasonable prices. I know many of them, and count them as friends. Part of what FCA does nationally is to identify these
honest businesses so we can refer consumers to the good guys.

3. It is also true that funeral service is a *business*, not a charity. Funeral directors are entitled to earn a living, too. The trouble is, most consumers naively treat it the funeral only as a "sacred" (for lack of a better word) event, and forget that it is also commercial transaction. The funeral director, no matter how well-intentioned, is there to make money. The consumer needs to remember that, and to choose appropriately, which is hard to do when you don't know what your rights are and you're in grief.

Not to denigrate anyone here, but the comments from the public on this forum show how much
widespread misinformation there is about funerals. That's why Funeral Consumers Alliance exists - to help clear up confusion and give people the facts so they can make informed choices that fit their tastes and budgets. I hope you???ll all visit www.funerals.org to see what we have to offer.

4. Most funeral directors say they got into the business to help people at a tough time. I believe them. But that doesn't change the fact that the help comes at a price, and the consumer needs to be aware of how to control
her costs. All FCA wants to do is put consumers on an equal free market footing with funeral directors. It takes two to tango in any business deal - car shopping, home-buying, etc. Just so with funerals. For too
long, the funeral consumer has been passively "directed" into the kind of funeral that just happens to be profitable for the funeral home. If consumers willingly choose such funerals, that's fine, as long as they
do so knowing their full range of options and rights. The good funeral directors I know agree that an informed consumer is the easiest consumer to satisfy.



Joshua Slocum
Executive Director, Funeral Consumers Alliance
www.funerals.org

No one has mentioned the high cost of a burial plot---talk about expensive real estate. There are many national cemeteries around the country where honorably discharged veterans and their wives can be buried free. This benefit is a way of saying thank you for your service to the country. The V.A. takes over at the gate---all arrangements and related costs before are the responsibility of the family.

No one has mentioned the high cost of a burial plot---talk about expensive real estate. There are many national cemeteries around the country where honorably discharged veterans and their wives can be buried free. This benefit is a way of saying thank you for your service to the country. The V.A. takes over at the gate---all arrangements and related costs before are the responsibility of the family.

In my view, the over-embellishment of caskets with plush luxurious interiors is totally unnecessary and only adds to the cost. I doubt the deceased could care less about the quality and/or appearance of his ???accommodations???. The traditional pine box, or better yet, cremation, which would be the most practical, since it would eliminate the acquisition of land for burial purposes. Does anyone have any idea of the number of square mile areas that are taken up by cemeteries over the entire globe?

Ref to this article I think this ''greedy company call Funeral Service"" is one of the worst crocks from the time they come in market , now today I'm just curious who will be the creature to fight again to this , we know also very well we are a corrupted society from the bar to the top , will be very hard to come someone to be on the side of the honest hard working American people to protect again to this Sharks , that they point is only to milk anyone money how much they can , poor society ,and the life is going on so bad .

4th post -


savetheearth09 wrote:


"Posted By: savetheearth09 @ 07/05/2008 3:50:02 PM

Comment: Wow, to the FCA and the author of this article, DO your research!! Cremation requires 3-5 hours of intense heat at tempertures around 1800 degrees F. Emitting tons of carbon into our atmosphere, not to mention the mercury fillings that are burned in the retort emitting mercury into the air.

Also, the author of The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford was a self described communist!!"


1. It's certainly true that cremation takes energy, and emits pollutants. It is also true that it's much cleaner than it was 30 years ago. You can make a good argument that cremation, on balance, is less resource-intense than embalming, metal caskets, concrete vaults, and the energy it takes to ship all this merchandise around the country.

Undoubtedly, a simple burial in a shroud with no coffin or liner is the greenest burial of all.

2. Decca Mitford was indeed a member of the Communist Party until the 1950s, I believe. But what you are doing is known as "poisoning the well" with an ad hominem attack. Mitford's political leanings have nothing to do with whether funeral consumers are taken advantage of (which they are), and whether there's work to be done to empower funeral buyers (there is).

As it happens, Mitford quit the party, if I remember correctly, when it became, in her words, "boring" and ineffectual on real social justice issues. Mitford, along with her husband, was also an activist for labor, unions, political freedom, and the rights of prisoners to be free from abuse. You may not like her politics, but that has nothing to do with whether her critique of the funeral industry was correct.


Joshua Slocum
Executive Director, Funeral Consumers Alliance