Funeral directors push cremation bill
by Mortuary Transport Expert ~ April 4th, 2008. Filed under: Body Business, Funeral Homes In The News.Now this is something all the states should be working on.
In this story, the Legislature of Massachusetts is trying to allow the funeral industry to dispose of indigent and unclaimed bodies in a less expensive way by cremating them instead of having traditional burials when no can pay for them.
The funeral directors are losing money since the state has been paying only $1100 for the last 30 years while a low cost funeral costs around $3000.
I’ve seen the boxes of unclaimed remains, and it gets ridiculous how long they have to store them. The time required is different in each state.
I understand it is really hard for family members to come and get the cremains, as it makes the pain all too real an additional time.
As unclaimed bodies of poor people pile up in the medical examiner’s office in Boston and urns of cremains gather dust in funeral home basements, legislation is advancing in the Statehouse that would allow the indigent to be cremated at lower cost and the ashes disposed of with less red tape.
The bill, introduced by state Rep. John J. Binienda, D-Worcester, on behalf of Worcester funeral director Peter Stefan and others in the industry, would allow funeral directors to remove stored cremated remains after two years if no family members claim them.
It would also give funeral home owners the far less expensive option of cremating, rather than burying, the bodies of dead people who can’t afford to pay for their own funerals.
“If this passes it’s going to eliminate the body buildups in the medical examiner’s office,” said Mr. Stefan, owner of the Graham, Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, who has been handling indigent funerals for years. “I’ve got a couple of hundred boxes of remains in my cellar that I don’t know what to do with.”
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