Funeral Director Street Fights & Survivor Bribery | 4M #182

Welcome to the hundred-and-eighty-second edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #182, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!

Slow down, Maryland

The State of Maryland doesn’t play around when it comes to solving problems, it seems. Within days of learning about horrendous, hazardous issues at Heaven Bound Cremation Services, the facility was shut down, the governor issued a review of the state’s funeral board, and several members of the board resigned. Now, less than two months after those actions, Maryland legislators are proposing new laws to prevent another situation like this from happening. But while deathcare professionals applaud the state’s attentiveness and willingness to help, at least a few have concerns that the laws are being pushed out too quickly, and may end up having a negative impact on the industry. “I think we’re trying to solve a lot of problems very quickly, very rushed,” Chief Operating Officer of the Cremation Society of Maryland Chris Boggs said. “I think it’s going to cause more work later on down the road.” Among Boggs’ and others’ concerns are the potential for higher licensing fees and the proposed oversight of crematoriums remaining with the board.

It could work

How often do the families you serve go against the final wishes of their deceased loved ones when it comes to services or disposition? Depending on how those disposition requests are expressed, surviving spouses or next of kin can sometimes void them altogether, opting to do things their own way. Thankfully, an article in the American Bar Association’s journal has a solution: Bribe your survivors. Although the full article is behind a paywall, a law professor’s abstract of the article says that the author suggests that “careful drafting, proper legal structuring, and financial incentives may be necessary tools to ensure a client’s posthumous wishes are honored, avoiding unwanted outcomes such as having their remains discarded in a sewer or used for scientific research without consent.”

Funeral turf wars

Competition must be fierce for Mexican deathcare professionals. It’s reported that two formally-dressed workers from competing funeral homes in Mexico City, Mexico were captured on film last week “brawling” over which would claim the body of a man who had died by electric shock while decorating his home. As a group of onlookers gathered to video the unusual street fight, one of the two men reportedly pulled a knife on the other, and both were eventually reported to authorities, where they settled their differences.

Shout out to the private citizen

Unclaimed cremated remains are a growing problem in the U.S., and the lack of a uniform solution has led to a wide variety of disposition decisions. In Marshall County, Alabama, a private citizen has just pledged to purchase a mausoleum, which will be built in a local cemetery, so the cremated remains will have a “dignified place to rest while waiting to be claimed.” The mausoleum will be opened annually so that loved ones can claim the remains, then resealed; county officials are meeting to decide who will cover the opening/closing costs.