Planning Ahead: Is Embalming Right for You?

When someone dies, there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. The funeral home to use, who will speak at the funeral, what the obituary will say, the type of casket... But what about embalming? Does your loved one want to be embalmed? Does anyone really know enough about it to make a decision? Well, considering it costs so much, the place that would profit from doing it certainly isn't where the answer should come from.

I always thought that embalming was a part of death. Since I'd never been close to anyone who had died, I hadn't gone through the process of making those kinds of decisions. The laws vary in each state when it comes to embalming. In Virginia, if the body isn't going to be embalmed, then it must be buried within twenty-four hours.

In the past, people were scared of burying someone alive. They tried all kinds of things to make sure that the person wasn't still alive, including burying people with bells to ring if they were still alive. In later years, people were embalmed partly to make sure that they really were dead.

Another reason for embalming is to preserve the body. The idea is for the body to look peaceful, making an open casket possible and perhaps the funeral easier. However, embalming pulls the color from the body, which makes the use of other things such as makeup necessary. But embalming isn't required. Bodies do not decompose as fast as people believe. As long as the burial isn't delayed, embalming isn't necessary.

I learned more about embalming than I ever wanted to know when I took a class in college called the sociology of aging. In her endeavor to teach the class about death, the teacher showed us a video about embalming. In the video, several people were interviewed about their opinions of embalming. This one lady in the video explained that a metal rod is inserted in and out of the body repeatedly. All the organs are stabbed to make sure that all of the fluids in the body are removed. She went on to explain that she felt it was a violation of her mother's body to have her embalmed.

I agree that embalming is a violation of the person's body. Most people probably don't know how invasive the procedure is. Everyone should learn everything that they can about the issues surrounding death so that when they tell their loved ones what their final wishes are, they are making an informed decision.