14/09/2017
Morality in the Funeral Industry
The issue of morality in reference to revential care of the dead is embodied in the conflict between logic and emotion. The logical mind might well dismiss the co**se as nothing more than a mass of dead tissue, but our emotional selves will not allow such easy dismissal of something so inherent to our humanity, and this leads to an internal conflict between OUR LOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL SELVES....
An illustration of the power of the emotions associated with death was seen in 1963, a year of supreme importance for the funeral service profession. Jessica Mitford published The American Way of Death, a savage and relentless attack on the profession, causing a counterattack on Mitford herself by America's funeral directors. Then came November 22, 1963, and the shocking assassination and subsequent funeral of President John F. Kennedy, an act that rocked our entire nation's moral and emotional foundations. The public did not feel comfortable criticizing funeral directors, symbols of death and funerals, when the nation was in the throes of mourning a slain president. To describe President Kennedy's body merely as "dead tissue" and to dispose of it without ceremony would have been morally irresponsible and blasphemous. This same need for public mourning and ritual was evident again following the deaths of other celebrities, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Princess Diana, Mother Theresa, President Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II.
These moral feelings representing our instinct to reverently care for the dead also emerge at other times. For example, if a body is missing due to war or a tragic accident, the community can be distraught beyond description. Thousands of taxpayers' dollars are spent on search and recovery efforts, and there is anxiety and remorse if these efforts fail. If we view this from a strictly logical viewpoint, and reduce the issue to one of the costs of such an effort, accepting the notion that the body has no value, then these magnanimous recovery efforts make little sense, and may be viewed as a waste of taxpayers' dollars. Without a body, an essential element to the grieving process is missing; an important piece of the bereavement puzzle is missing.
The Neantherdals made memorials using elk antlers and shoulder blades; today we use granite or marble. The ethic is the same; only the materials are different. We have an innate ethical drive to care for the dead; it is simply part of our humanity.
source: Fourth Edition "Embalming" History, Theory and Practice by Robert G. Mayer
