Burial, Cremation, and Beyond

Transcript

Burial, Cremation, and Beyond: Understanding Your Options

Hi, I’m Stacy Singer, an ACTEC Fellow from Chicago, Illinois, and I’m here with Lauren Wolven, also an ACTEC Fellow from Chicago, Illinois, and we are going to talk about “Burial, Cremation, and Beyond,” a topic you’ve probably not given a lot of thought to, but hopefully will after you hear this.

What Is the Right of Sepulcher? A Historical Overview

So, Lauren, can you tell me what the right of sepulcher is? I had never heard of it before this video.

Lauren Wolven: Yeah, and it’s a word that’s hard to pronounce. It actually is a purely American invention, because prior to coming across the pond from England, we always were burying people really according to religious law, and so it was the churches that always handled disposition of remains. Burial was by far kind of the preference, particularly in Western religion. And it was really only in the United States in about the late 1800s and early 1900s that we even started having laws about burial. Everybody was just sort of following the old processes and procedures that had been used in the other countries that they came from when they came to the Americas, but then we started having some disputes because there were different practices, different wishes, etc., and so the legislatures did start to develop the law.

State Laws vs. Federal Laws on Burial and Cremation

One of the interesting things is that the federal government has very little law about disposition of human remains. Most of the law is really set forth by the states, and the interesting piece, and what’s really relevant for any listeners to know, is that the law of the state where your body is located is the one that’s going to govern what has to be done with your body. It’s not the law where you reside.

Importance of Documenting Burial Wishes

Now, not all states are going to recognize the same form of document that would indicate what you’re supposed to do with your remains. That said, it’s still better to have something in writing that says, “Here’s what I want,” so that people at least know. And, you know, one of the reasons for that is that there are very specific differences among the religions that are—and there are so many religions in this country, in particular, that you want to be aware of what those cultural differences are.

And I know, Stacy, you’ve kind of looked at that. What are some of the key things that you think are important for looking at disposition of remains from a religious perspective?

Religious Burial Traditions: Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Catholicism

Stacy Singer: You know, it’s interesting because most faiths have some rules around this. This video isn’t long enough to cover all of them, but let me give you just a couple of, I think, sort of interesting highlights.

Islamic Burial Practices

So, as an example, in Islam, the goal is always to bury someone before sundown on the day of death. The body should be cleaned and shrouded because cleanliness is considered very important. And a person should be buried with their body facing towards Mecca, and no embalming.

Jewish Burial Practices

You’ll hear echoes of that in Judaism, which also does not believe in embalming and traditionally says burial in a simple white casket with a prayer shawl. Interestingly, in Judaism, while there’s also a desire to bury the body relatively quickly, there is also a belief that the body should never be left alone. And so it is considered a good deed or a mitzvah in Judaism to ensure that the body has someone with it until the burial. Many funeral homes offer that, but that is also considered something many religious Jews will offer as something they do.

Buddhist Practices

In Buddhism, as you know, a contrast, cremation is actually much preferred. And that’s because it’s considered the way to release the body or release the soul, I should say, from the body. So it’s very customary.

Catholic Cremation Guidelines

And then just to give one other comment regarding cremation, as you said, it’s changed quite a bit in terms of the view. Catholicism did not allow cremation before Vatican II. After Vatican II, it was allowed and it is allowed, although not necessarily preferred. But Catholic tradition would require that the cremains be kept in an urn and then buried, that there not be a division of the remains amongst family or a scattering of the ashes anywhere, that those cremains in this vessel should be either buried or entombed similar to a body.

So I think that, Lauren, sort of brings us to the next question, which is, okay, so what actually happens to bodies today? What are the kind of common practices that people should be aware of?

Modern Burial Trends and Disposition Methods in the U.S.

Lauren Wolven:  Yeah. And as I mentioned earlier, the sort of default method in Western culture had been to bury the remains of someone. And in fact, for many centuries, cremation was illegal in the United States because it was considered a desecration of human remains that could jeopardize the person’s chances of resurrection. So embalming began kind of to be more popular in the mid-1900s.

Rise of Cremation: From Taboo to Mainstream

Cremation was actually legalized in the United States starting in the late 1880s. But until 1972, the cremation rates were in the single digits. So that’s really a long, long time for cremation to kind of catch on.

Fast forward, however, to 2023, which is the most recent statistics that we have from the Cremation Association of North America; the cremation rate was 60.6% of all disposition of remains. And it’s projected that we’re going to be at 80% in the next probably five to 10 years. So that’s a really kind of fast change of what people were looking at between 1972 and today (2025).

Green Burial: An Eco-Friendly Alternative

So there are actually several different kinds of newer methods for disposing of remains. So there’s green burial, which is simply being buried in a box that will decompose or a shroud. No embalming or anything like that.

Water Cremation (Alkaline Hydrolysis): An Emerging Option

Water cremation is an alternative to sort of the more traditional fire cremation. And it is the dissolution of a body in sort of a base with heat and pressure until the body is reduced to liquid and powder.

A lot of people talk about wanting a what they refer to as a green burial, but they’re really talking about they want to be buried at the base of a tree or added back into the earth. I hear often from clients, “I’d like to be buried at the base of a tree.” The interesting thing is if you took traditional cremains and put them at the base of a tree, you’d probably kill the tree because the pH is completely off.

Human Composting (Natural Organic Reduction): Burial at the Base of a Tree

So if what you want is to be buried at the base of a tree, you’re going to want the newer form of disposition, which is natural organic reduction, also known as human composting. So what they do is they take the remains, they put them in a container, they introduce organic materials and microorganisms. And they basically break your body down into soil, a soil of proper pH that will not kill a tree. And so your remains could then be spread and used to grow a new tree or be placed at the base of an existing tree.

The natural organic reduction being the newer one, it’s legal only in 12 states right now, including California and New York. However, it’s only currently available in Washington State and Colorado. We’re expecting more states to come online with actually having it available. But for now, if that’s what you want, you’re going to have to figure out how to get your remains transported to Washington and Colorado and moved across state lines in order to do that.

Final Thoughts: Plan Ahead and Put It in Writing

Stacy Singer: Lauren, this has been so interesting. And what I’m taking from all of this is: Do some research to know what you want. Decide what your best option is. Talk to your family.

Lauren Wolven: Exactly. And put something in writing.

Stacy Singer: And put something in writing. That’s a great suggestion. Thank you so much. This has been so interesting. For more ACTEC videos, please see actec.org. Thanks.