Bergwall, Blog 6: A New Way To Bury

March 18, 2010 Senator Pappas of the Minnesota State Senate introduced a bill that would allow more freedom in viewing, transporting, and removal of a dead human body. Bill SP2903 was introduced and modified to HP 3151 and the passed by both House and Senate relating to mortuary science or funerals. Governor Pawlenty signed it into a bill April 28, 2010.
This bill gave the right of bereaved relative or guardian to be able to transport and prepare the remains for burial. Doctor Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota State Epidemiology Department testified before Committee on Health, Housing and Family Security about the safety of handling a dead body. Osterholm testified that he was a 100% certain that an intact body will not contaminated anyone with an infectious disease. Most deaths (85%) he cited were of the heart attack or cancer variety and with an intact body it was very safe to care for and transport the body by family. This put many fears to rest for the legislators.

Before the bill was passed you had to make special arrangement to be alone with the body and have to have special arrangements to transport the body. The bill came about because families did not like incurring the expense of mortuaries without a viable alternative. Families started objecting to embalming the body for environmental reasons and finding that the embalming process would last only two weeks anyway. The process in keeping the body preserved was started in WWI for keeping our dead soldiers bodies whole until they could be buried at their own home cemetery and that is where embalming came in.

This practice of embalming and the mortuary’s handling all affairs is relatively a new process. Before that most funerals were done at home with the deceased being viewed in the parlor and buried in a church cemetery or a home cemetery. “The personal aspect of families taking care of their dead has been lost,” a sponsor of the bill inform. Anyone who picked up a body now has to sign a certificate where the body is going and there are many other restrictions. This new bill gives transportation rights to family and 72 hours to take care of the funeral preparations.

Stories of home burials and preparations were told at the hearing about the closeness of the experience. It made it easier for the families to say goodbye and grieve in a normal way, the witnesses testified at the hearing before the Committee on Health, Housing and Family Security at the Minnesota Legislation. Stories were told of decorating and preparing the coffins and how the family reflected and told tales about the individual’s life during that time. This is usually done with the help of dry ice instead of embalming fluid which allowed the family to do this. There is a change and this personal touch is coming back into vogue instead of the former ides that have made the burial process homogenized.

This freedom of how families want to say goodbye to their loved ones is growing in popularity. It is definitely felt in the State of Minnesota as it goes forward with the passing and signing Bill SP2903 into law. It may not be for everyone but the grassroots of living and dying is taking hold of American lives. Minnesota is ahead in this learning curve and that is good for Minnesota.