Why cremation costs are high
Published:Wednesday | November 10, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
KINDLY PERMIT me space in your newspaper to comment on the article "Jamaicans shy away from cheaper burial methods" that appeared in the November 6 edition of The Star.
Cremation/calcination of a human remains is a viable option and not mandatory. The Hindus dispose of the human remains by burning it on a funeral pyre. The remains are then disposed of in the River Ganges. Cremation dates back to biblical times when animals used to be offered as a burnt offering or sacrifice to God
Cremation will never replace traditional earth burial. As the funeral industry is just like any other industry, it: (1) employs people (2) converts raw materials into finished goods (3) operates cemeteries (4) offers services (5) purchase finished goods and services and (6) pays taxes on goods, services and profits.
If someone were to die under questionable circumstances and the body was cremated, the cause(s) of death could not be ascertained, as valuable evidence would have been lost when the body is cremated.
High government taxation is one of the reason why the cost of burials is so high. A hearse which is customised for transportation of the dead, though not a specialised vehicle, can only be used for the purpose it was intended, unless reconverted. The aggregate duty on a hearse ranges between 93 per cent to more than 100 per cent.
fluctuating costs
The cost of electricity and water is very high and these are two commodities that have to be used in a funeral home. We need electricity to run the cold rooms and other equipment. Water is needed to wash the body, as well as for personal hygiene, and is a major constituent in the embalming process.
The fluctuating cost of gasolene and other petroleum products is a factor that drives up the cost of a burial or cremation.
One's religious persuasion and request will determine how a human remains may be disposed of. Sometimes, people request that their bodies be disposed of by donating it for medical research. Only one university in Jamaica - University of the West Indies, Mona - can accommodate this request, and they get more request than they can handle. From time to time, they have to refuse bodies.
In Jamaica, thousands of people are employed in the funeral industry, offering goods and services to the bereaved family. In our funeral home, cremation represents a very small percentage of our business and this is true throughout the industry. It is legal to bury a loved one in the family plot, as long as permission is granted by the parish council upon application.
A cremation may be done after written permission is granted by:
1. The doctor who last attended the deceased.
2. The pathologist who performed the autopsy where one is done.
3. The senior medical officer for the parish.
4. The police (authority to cremate).
A cremation may be performed prior to or after a memorial service, the latter being the more expensive of the two.
delayed by lack of permit
A vital piece of equipment required for use in the crematorium and the funeral home is not being permitted to be imported into the island by the Ministry of National Security. This vital piece of equipment is a Garret handheld metal detector, which is sold with the crematorium to detect metallic medical implants of an explosive nature which, if it explodes in the crematory/oven could cause serious damage to the equipment and the operator. In the United States, a crematorium cannot be operated without this vital piece of equipment. Our company imported one of these in June 2010 and, to date, we have not received a permit to clear this vital piece of equipment through customs.
This piece of equipment can also be used in the morgue to detect objects of a metallic nature, namely bullets and bullet fragments which are in the body and could not otherwise be detected unless an X-ray is done. This tool is also used in the funeral home to check for metallic objects in the body before it is dispatched to the crematorium.
Cremation services are offered to the bereaved families by funeral homes who are not operators of crematoriums, and it does not make the service any more expensive to the bereaved family. It is observed that your reporter did not interview any of these funeral homes, some of the largest in the country.
I am, etc.,
Joseph M. Cornwall (Sr) JP