Cremation
Cremation is not an end in itself, but the process which prepares the human remains for inurnment in a beautiful and everlasting memorial. – Chapel of the Chimes booklet, endorsed by Cremation Association of America
A common reaction of people who learn for the first time some of the facts and figures connected with the American way of death is to say, “None of that for me! I’m going to beat this racket. I just want to be cremated, and avoid all the fuss and expense.”
Cremation sounds like a simple, tidy solution to the disposal of the dead. It is available in most parts of the United States and (although frowned on by Catholics and some branches of the Jewish faith) is sanctioned by the majority religions. It appeals to the nature lover and the poeticminded, who visualize their mortal remains scattered over sunny hillside or remote seashore. It is applauded by rationalists, people concerned with sanitation, land conservation and population statistics, and by those who would like to see an end to all the malarkey that surrounds the usual kind of funeral. It has appeal for the economy-minded; logically, one would think the expense would be but a tiny fraction of that incurred by earth burial. Many people are under the vague impression that the undertaker can be bypassed altogether, and embalming dispensed with; that the crematorium will, no doubt, arrange to place the body in a suitable container, and consign it to the flames; that the only expense incurred will be the crematorium’s charge, something under $100.
It is true that in most countries where cremation is on the increase, the objectives of economy and simplicity are well served. In England, for example, where the number of cremations rose from 3 in 1885 to 107,159 in 1951 and today is the mode of disposal of 35 per cent of the dead, the cost is in the neighborhood of $10. Specifications for the coffin to be used are of the simplest, “easily combustible wood, not painted or varnished”; to facilitate scattering the ashes they are “removed from the cremator, and after cooling pulverized to a fine texture.” The ultimate disposition of 90 per cent of English cremated remains is scattering, or “strewing,” as the clergy prefer to call it. Sometimes the ashes are scattered over the ocean or from a plane over the countryside; more often, by a crematory attendant, in a Garden of Remembrance, consecrated ground specially set aside for the purpose. Most crematoria and cemeteries maintain such a garden; in some there is a nominal charge of about $1.50. The practice of scattering was formally approved by the Church of England in 1944.
The vogue for cremation is a very recent development in England. The cremation “movement” was initiated there in the nineteenth century. Its adherents included many distinguished physicians and chemists; intellectuals; radicals and reformers; a few members of the aristocracy. Among the organizers of the first Cremation Society in 1874 were Sir Henry Thompson, Bart., Surgeon to the Queen; Anthony Trollope, Spencer Wells, Millais, the Dukes of Bedford and Westminster. Naturally, that thorny old critic of the status quo, George Bernard Shaw, was strongly in favor of cremation, and he sums up the argument for it with his usual pithiness: “Dead bodies can be cremated. All of them ought to be; for earth burial, a horrible practice, will some day be prohibited by law, not only because it is hideously unaesthetic, but because the dead would crowd the living off the earth if it could be carried out to its end of preserving our bodies for their resurrection on an imaginary day of judgment (in sober fact, every day is a day of judgment).”
There were at first strong objections to cremation from some of the clergy, who thought that it would interfere with the resurrection of the body; this point was neatly disposed of by Lord Shaftesbury when he asked, “What would in such a case become of the Blessed Martyrs?” In the 1870S and 1880s, cremation advocates campaigned on a number of fronts for legality and public acceptance of the practice. They published expository material urging support for their cause; they experimented with various types of furnaces; they went so far as to cremate each other in defiance of the authorities, thus subjecting themselves to public censure and even to criminal prosecution. It was not until 1884 that they won a court decision declaring cremation to be a legal procedure, but there was still much opposition from church and public; police protection was sometimes necessary when a cremation was to take place. In short, acceptance of cremation as a sensible and also a respectable disposition of the human dead was only won as the result of a hard-fought, uphill struggle.
The early partisans of cremation, willing to flout the law and risk imprisonment to simplify and rationalize disposal of the dead, would whirl in their urns could they but see what has become of their favorite cause today in America. For cremation, like every other aspect of the disposal of the dead, has long since been taken over by the funeral industry, which prescribes the procedures to be followed and establishes its own regulations to which the customers must adhere. Therefore, he who seeks to avoid the purchase of a casket, embalming and the full treatment will not succeed by the mere fact of choosing cremation rather than burial. Also, he is much more likely to end up in an urn housed in a niche in an elaborate “columbarium,” complete with Perpetual Care, than to be scattered or privately buried in some favorite country spot.
“If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em” would seem to sum up the funeral industry’s attitude to cremation. There is a Cremation Association of America, but it has no resemblance to its English predecessor, It is in fact merely an association of persons, principally cemetery operators, who are in the cremation business. Simplicity and economy are not their goals; far from it. The philosophical outlook of the Association is expounded in some material issued by the Education and Information Committee:
- Is a funeral director necessary?
- His services are exactly the same as for other forms of care, and his services are needed for the first call, embalming, casket selection and conduct of the service.
- What kind of casket is best for cremation?
- Inasmuch as the casket serves its primary purpose in creating a memory picture at the time of the funeral service, this is a matter for each family to decide. In general, it is recommended that the casket be the same as for any other form of interment.
- What is done with cremated remains?
- Cremation is not disposition; it is only a method for preparing the remains for memorialization. They are still human remains, and should be placed in a dedicated place such as a columbarium, mausoleum or other place where they will receive continuing care.
