Warning – the following article
contains explicit details about
the embalming process.
Embalmed bodies do not need refrigerating, and can be
easily transported from a ‘hub’ to a branch for viewing
and left there until the time of the funeral – fewer
costly trips back and forth from the branch back to the
fridge, fewer fridges needed, families bear the cost of
the process that enables this, and a small mark up can
be made too. What’s to lose?
Basically, everything, as Ru points out – but everything
from the family’s point of view rather than the business
involved. Embalming suits the funeral industry, and
families have been persuaded that it suits them too –
avoid all that messy reality of seeing death as it actually
is by just nodding your agreement to the suggestion of
‘Hygienic Treatment’ and it will all be so much better
than it could have been.
Personally, I think this is the question that should
be asked of each family - Would you like us to;
Open up the jugular artery and vein in mum’s neck?
Pump all the blood out of her circulatory system and
replace it with a gallon or two of 2% formaldehyde (an
irritant volatile acid containing a pink dye to give her
skin a healthy colour)?
Make an opening in her abdomen and insert a sharp
medical instrument to puncture all her organs and suck
any fluid out of them?
Fill her abdomen with more of that embalming fluid?
The Natural
Death Centre
Committed to informing
the general public about
the truth of the funeral
process in the UK.
Insert plastic caps under her eyelids?
Stitch her mouth closed by running a curved needle
and suture up through her nostril, through her septum
and down into the gum tissue at the front of her jaw,?
Apply a whole load of cosmetics to her face and dress
her in her own clothes before she gets placed in the
coffin?
Or would you like us to just wash her if needed?”
I have a feeling the number of bodies being embalmed
would shrink to almost nil – and embalming would
become the specialist technique it should be, used in
cases where reconstruction after an accident is needed,
or for preservation for identification purposes.
Even when it shocks...