What can happen to a body, and what each choice involves

Why it exists

Every culture has had to answer the same practical question, and the answers have always been shaped by land, climate, law and belief together. The modern American funeral industry standardized one particular answer during the twentieth century, which is why many families assume that embalming, a viewing and a sealed casket are what a funeral is. They are options.

Knowing the full range matters financially and emotionally. The gap in cost between the simplest and the most elaborate handling of the same body is very large, and families who do not know the range often assume they are choosing between what they were shown and nothing at all.

It also matters because the person may have said what they wanted. A stated preference for cremation, for a natural burial, or for donation is much easier to honor when the family knows what those things involve before the conversation with the funeral director rather than during it.

How it actually works

Burial is placement of the body in the ground or in a vault or mausoleum. It usually involves a casket, a burial plot, an opening and closing fee charged by the cemetery, and often an outer burial container required by the cemetery rather than by law. Immediate burial, which happens shortly after death without embalming or a preceding ceremony, is an option every provider must offer, and a memorial service can be held later.

Cremation reduces the body by heat, returning fragments that are processed and given to the family. Direct cremation, without embalming, viewing or a prior ceremony, is likewise an option every provider must offer, and providers offering cremation must make alternative containers available rather than requiring a casket. Cremation does not preclude a service. It changes only when the service happens.

Natural or green burial is burial without embalming, in a biodegradable container, generally without a vault or liner. Massachusetts, for example, defines a green burial as one where the body is not embalmed, no metal or hardwood is used in the casket, and no gravel liner or vault is used. Whether it is available near you depends on the cemetery, because most conventional cemeteries require a liner as a matter of their own policy.

Home burial and the newer processes are the most state dependent of all. Massachusetts permits home burial on private residential land, but requires written approval from the local board of health and from the local governing body, a site plan filed with the Registry of Deeds, and review by the state environmental agency. Alkaline hydrolysis, sometimes described as water cremation, and natural organic reduction, sometimes described as human composting, are lawful in some states and not in others, and the list changes as legislatures act. Ask your own state's funeral board or health department what is currently permitted where you are.

What to do

1. 1Establish first whether the person left a stated preference, in a will, an advance directive, a preneed contract, or in writing anywhere else.
2. 2Decide the disposition and the ceremony as two separate questions, in that order, because the second one has no deadline.
3. 3Ask each provider what its direct cremation and immediate burial prices are, since those are the floor against which everything else is measured.
4. 4If a natural or home burial is wanted, contact the local board of health and the state health department before contacting a cemetery, because permitting drives what is possible.
5. 5Ask the cemetery, in writing, for its vault, marker and planting requirements before purchasing a plot.
6. 6If you want an option your state may not permit, such as alkaline hydrolysis or natural organic reduction, confirm current legality with the state funeral board rather than with a provider's website.

Words you will meet

disposition

The final handling of the body: burial, cremation, donation, or another process the state permits.

embalming

A chemical process that temporarily delays decomposition, not required as a routine matter by any state law.

alternative container

An unfinished wood, cardboard or composite container used for cremation in place of a casket, which providers offering cremation must make available.

natural burial

Burial without embalming, in a biodegradable container, generally without a vault or grave liner.

alkaline hydrolysis

A water and alkali based process that reduces the body to bone fragments and liquid, lawful in some states and not others.

natural organic reduction

A controlled process that converts the body into soil, lawful in some states and not others.

What this does not cover

This module does not cover whole body donation to a medical school, which is in the Body and the End of Life discipline, or burial in a national cemetery for veterans, which is in Money, Benefits and Insurance. It also does not list which states permit which newer processes, because that list changes and a stale list would be worse than none.