Spring 2015
We're pleased to present the first edition of the FCA of MN Newsletter, which will be issued quarterly. The purpose of the Newsletter is to keep you informed of FCA of MN's efforts on your behalf, and to share with you trends and developments in the death care field that impact the consumer.
We're pleased to present the first edition of the FCA of MN Newsletter, which will be issued quarterly. The purpose of the Newsletter is to keep you informed of FCA of MN's efforts on your behalf, and to share with you trends and developments in the death care field that impact the consumer.
2015 Direct Cremation Price Survey
Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota has conducted a new price survey of Direct Cremation in the Twin Cities metro area. The Survey, along with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Direct Cremation, are HERE.
A number of funeral directors will tell you, unpersuasively, we think, that price should not be your first consideration when choosing a funeral firm. While almost every funeral firm website has something to say about the quality of service they provide, about the number of years they've been in business, and about the decor of their viewing rooms, when you choose Direct Cremation, you are choosing a service which only minimally involves the services of a funeral firm's staff and facility.
Our Direct Cremation Price Survey compares apples to apples - the exact same set of services offered as a package for a single price and called Direct Cremation. Instead of surveying all funeral firms in the Twin Cities area (the entire apple orchard, you might say) we've listed only the 10 lowest priced Direct Cremation packages. We've done the shopping so you don't have to.
We hope you'll find the Direct Cremation Price Survey a useful tool when considering after death arrangements for yourself, or for a family member or friend.
NOTE: Some funeral firms use the term "Basic Cremation" or "Immediate Cremation." We use the most commonly used term - "Direct Cremation."
Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota has conducted a new price survey of Direct Cremation in the Twin Cities metro area. The Survey, along with Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Direct Cremation, are HERE.
A number of funeral directors will tell you, unpersuasively, we think, that price should not be your first consideration when choosing a funeral firm. While almost every funeral firm website has something to say about the quality of service they provide, about the number of years they've been in business, and about the decor of their viewing rooms, when you choose Direct Cremation, you are choosing a service which only minimally involves the services of a funeral firm's staff and facility.
Our Direct Cremation Price Survey compares apples to apples - the exact same set of services offered as a package for a single price and called Direct Cremation. Instead of surveying all funeral firms in the Twin Cities area (the entire apple orchard, you might say) we've listed only the 10 lowest priced Direct Cremation packages. We've done the shopping so you don't have to.
We hope you'll find the Direct Cremation Price Survey a useful tool when considering after death arrangements for yourself, or for a family member or friend.
NOTE: Some funeral firms use the term "Basic Cremation" or "Immediate Cremation." We use the most commonly used term - "Direct Cremation."
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
You may have heard of 30-year-old Los Angeles licensed funeral director Caitlin Doughty. She's the face of a series of YouTube videos called "Ask A Mortician," and she blogs at The Order of the Good Death, a website showcasing people and ideas at the forefront of the revolution in the way we handle death. Caitlin was our closing banquet "entertainment" at last June's Funeral Consumers Alliance national conference, which was held in Bloomington, MN.
In 2014 she published Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory, a memoir of her journey from Oakland, CA crematory worker, to licensed funeral director, to fervent advocate for rethinking how we relate to death and to our dead. It was a New York Times bestseller - for a young, first-time author, "not too bad," as we say in Minnesota.
The Washington Post reviewed the book, saying:
What holds “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” together is Doughty’s attempt to make us all more aware of our own mortality and to lessen, perhaps even eradicate, our fear of death. She describes embalming and cremation in clear, graphic imagery that lets us know exactly what becomes of us after we die. This way, she says, “rather than denying the truth” of death, we can “embrace it.”
You may have heard of 30-year-old Los Angeles licensed funeral director Caitlin Doughty. She's the face of a series of YouTube videos called "Ask A Mortician," and she blogs at The Order of the Good Death, a website showcasing people and ideas at the forefront of the revolution in the way we handle death. Caitlin was our closing banquet "entertainment" at last June's Funeral Consumers Alliance national conference, which was held in Bloomington, MN.
In 2014 she published Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory, a memoir of her journey from Oakland, CA crematory worker, to licensed funeral director, to fervent advocate for rethinking how we relate to death and to our dead. It was a New York Times bestseller - for a young, first-time author, "not too bad," as we say in Minnesota.
The Washington Post reviewed the book, saying:
What holds “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” together is Doughty’s attempt to make us all more aware of our own mortality and to lessen, perhaps even eradicate, our fear of death. She describes embalming and cremation in clear, graphic imagery that lets us know exactly what becomes of us after we die. This way, she says, “rather than denying the truth” of death, we can “embrace it.”
Ten Reasons Why Embalming is Dying
No, we didn't come up with these 10 reasons, but it may surprise you to find out who did.
"10 Reasons Why Embalming Is Dying" is a recent post on the website CONFESSIONS OF A FUNERAL DIRECTOR, by Caleb Wilde, a 6th-generation licensed funeral director and embalmer in Pennsylvania. (6th generation puts that 1st generation in the Civil War era!) Caleb runs the CONFESSIONS website when he's not otherwise directing funerals and embalming.
Two of those 10 reasons caught our eye:
Two. Value Vs. Cost
There’s a difference between value and cost. People will pay for things that they see as valuable. And people are increasingly NOT seeing value in the traditional funeral to justify the cost of embalming, casket, vault and burial plots. Increasingly, people don’t have enough money for life, yet alone death. The lack of funds combined with a perceived lack of value is creating a smaller and smaller market for the “traditional funeral.”
Seven. There are Probably Better Psychological Benefits in Natural Burial
It just makes more sense that those who took care of the deceased in life should also do so in death. And when we (the so called funeral “professionals") are cut out, it may (probably) be a better aid in grief work to do it yourself.
Embalming helps confront death denial. But natural burial does it better because it often allows the true professionals to play their part. We question if "embalming helps confront death denial," but we heartily agree on the benefits of natural burial and caring for our own dead.
No, we didn't come up with these 10 reasons, but it may surprise you to find out who did.
"10 Reasons Why Embalming Is Dying" is a recent post on the website CONFESSIONS OF A FUNERAL DIRECTOR, by Caleb Wilde, a 6th-generation licensed funeral director and embalmer in Pennsylvania. (6th generation puts that 1st generation in the Civil War era!) Caleb runs the CONFESSIONS website when he's not otherwise directing funerals and embalming.
Two of those 10 reasons caught our eye:
Two. Value Vs. Cost
There’s a difference between value and cost. People will pay for things that they see as valuable. And people are increasingly NOT seeing value in the traditional funeral to justify the cost of embalming, casket, vault and burial plots. Increasingly, people don’t have enough money for life, yet alone death. The lack of funds combined with a perceived lack of value is creating a smaller and smaller market for the “traditional funeral.”
Seven. There are Probably Better Psychological Benefits in Natural Burial
It just makes more sense that those who took care of the deceased in life should also do so in death. And when we (the so called funeral “professionals") are cut out, it may (probably) be a better aid in grief work to do it yourself.
Embalming helps confront death denial. But natural burial does it better because it often allows the true professionals to play their part. We question if "embalming helps confront death denial," but we heartily agree on the benefits of natural burial and caring for our own dead.
Speaking of embalming, at the website of the Minnesota Funeral Directors Association (MFDA), there's a section "For the Consumer" with a number of FAQs including this one:
What is the purpose of embalming?
Embalming preserves the body so it can be sanitarily presentable for funeralization.
We don't know if the mouthful, sanitarily presentable for funeralization, is merely another way to say, as Caleb Wilde does, that embalming helps confront death denial. We rather suspect it has something to do with the old scare tactic that unembalmed bodies are dangerous. To lay this to rest, it's worth quoting at length from a 2010 statement in support of family directed death care by Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRP):
...unless there is the use of sharps, including needles and scalpels or high speed saws, to enter the body cavity, there simply is no measurable risk of that body transmitting an infectious disease agent. The use of embalming is of no consequence in reducing this risk. Rather, embalming for such a body merely delays the normal biologic processes that cause the bloating and disfigurement of the body. The use of dry ice during those first days following death will accomplish the same cosmetic effect.
What is the purpose of embalming?
Embalming preserves the body so it can be sanitarily presentable for funeralization.
We don't know if the mouthful, sanitarily presentable for funeralization, is merely another way to say, as Caleb Wilde does, that embalming helps confront death denial. We rather suspect it has something to do with the old scare tactic that unembalmed bodies are dangerous. To lay this to rest, it's worth quoting at length from a 2010 statement in support of family directed death care by Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRP):
...unless there is the use of sharps, including needles and scalpels or high speed saws, to enter the body cavity, there simply is no measurable risk of that body transmitting an infectious disease agent. The use of embalming is of no consequence in reducing this risk. Rather, embalming for such a body merely delays the normal biologic processes that cause the bloating and disfigurement of the body. The use of dry ice during those first days following death will accomplish the same cosmetic effect.
Recent FCAofMN Presentations
One of the pleasures of giving an FCA of MN presentation is engaging with thoughtful groups eager to learn about after-death choices, and their rights as consumers of after-death services and products. Recent presentations:
March 17
An FCA of MN board member presented "Plan Ahead and Rest in Peace" to the New Century Club in St Paul. The 75 women in attendance appreciated the information outlining the growing options for after death care.
April 19-21
FCA of MN will staff a table in the Exhibit Hall at the Annual Conference of the Minnesota Network of Hospice and Palliative Care (MNHPC) in Bloomington, MN. FCA of MN will share a table with Minnesota Threshold Network.
April 22
An FCA of MN board member will address the RosePointe Independent Living Facility at it's monthly seminar for residents.
Invite a speaker to address your group.
FCA of MN is available to address your professional, church, neighborhood, or other community group. Daytime, evenings, weekends - you name it. Topics include:
the wide-range of after-death options available to Minnesotans
Contact Us to arrange a speaker. There is NO charge, but an honorarium will be gladly accepted.
One of the pleasures of giving an FCA of MN presentation is engaging with thoughtful groups eager to learn about after-death choices, and their rights as consumers of after-death services and products. Recent presentations:
March 17
An FCA of MN board member presented "Plan Ahead and Rest in Peace" to the New Century Club in St Paul. The 75 women in attendance appreciated the information outlining the growing options for after death care.
April 19-21
FCA of MN will staff a table in the Exhibit Hall at the Annual Conference of the Minnesota Network of Hospice and Palliative Care (MNHPC) in Bloomington, MN. FCA of MN will share a table with Minnesota Threshold Network.
April 22
An FCA of MN board member will address the RosePointe Independent Living Facility at it's monthly seminar for residents.
Invite a speaker to address your group.
FCA of MN is available to address your professional, church, neighborhood, or other community group. Daytime, evenings, weekends - you name it. Topics include:
the wide-range of after-death options available to Minnesotans
- how to plan after death arrangements for yourself so your loved ones won't have to
- reducing the environmental impact of your after-death arrangements
Contact Us to arrange a speaker. There is NO charge, but an honorarium will be gladly accepted.
Help us Continue Our Work!
As an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization, Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota operates on a shoe-string budget. We rely on donations from our friends and supporters to keep us going. If you find our work valuable and if you've benefited from our resource-rich website, why not help us with a contribution? $10, $20, $30 or more - whatever you send will help us continue this important work. Amazingly, we operate on less than $1,500 a year. Our modest expenses include:
▪ Our dedicated phone line
▪ Our website
▪ Printing costs for our brochure, which we distribute at speaking engagements and other events
▪ Other printing, copying, and mailing expenses
What we do costs so little because of the many hours our volunteers spend:
- Responding to your phone and email inquiries
- Maintaining and updating our website
- Giving presentations to community, church, and other groups
- Conducting price surveys so you don't have to
- Keeping on top of trends and changes in the death care industry