Warning – the following article
contains explicit details about
the embalming process.
Probably for the best reasons, many funeral arrangers
and conductors encourage families to have the bodies
of their dead relatives embalmed. Unfortunately, the
desire to protect bereaved people from the ‘distress’
of seeing – or even worse, smelling – death in all its
grim reality means that the process is often subtly
encouraged, or glossed over by pseudonym and
lack of explanation – ‘You’ll want mum to have our
hygienic treatment won’t you? And we’ll do her hair
just like she used to have it.’ “If you want to come and
see Dad then I’d recommend temporary preservation
so he looks his best.”
Often embalming is done routinely and can be
included in the professional fees, or in the ‘Care of
the deceased’ fee charged by the funeral director
– requiring a bereaved family to be sufficiently
informed and aware at the time of making funeral
arrangements to expressly opt out of having a body
embalmed.
This is a clear breach of the British Institute of
Embalmers Code of Ethics, which states: “The client’s
informed consent, preferably in writing, must be
obtained”, however we know that written explicit
permission to embalm is rarely routinely obtained in
the UK. A signature agreeing to ‘terms and conditions’
(something that is a normal part of engaging a funeral
director’s services) is taken as being an implicit
agreement to routine embalming. The Charter for
the Bereaved warns that ‘If you are opposed to
embalming, it may be advised to expressly forbid it’.
How can this have become the case? How can a
gruesome, intrusive process have become something
that is presumed to be the norm? We think basically
through a combination of fear, misleading information,
laziness and convenience – and quite possibly, profit.
Embalming typically adds around £100 - £200 to
the costs of each funeral. The amount paid to the
embalmer will vary depending on whether they are
employed by the funeral director’s company or are
self employed – a so called ‘trade embalmer’, and also
on the types of cases they are required to embalm,
however I am not aware of any embalmer being
paid anywhere near £100 per embalming, I believe
the figure is nearer half that amount. I have known
trade embalmers to turn up and carry out five or six
cases in a morning before disappearing to another
company for the afternoon ‘batch’.