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Additional/Back Issues Dear website visitor,We are pleased to have the lead article for this issue contributed by Karen J. Leonard, the research assistant for the best-selling book -- The American Way of Death -- authored by the late Jessica Mitford. If you'd like to read more of Karen's work, check out our March 1998 newsletter -- she contributed two articles for that issue.Darryl J. RobertsTHE COMMERCE OF CORPSES You’ve heard the song with the refrain that goes something like, "My soul belongs to the company store." Well, the company may own your soul, but Wall Street now owns your body. Chances are that when Aunt Mable drops, you will call the closest funeral home — John Brown’s Colonial Chapel of the Chimes and Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park — the one where Uncle George was sent to 14 years ago. It’s quite like that that this neighborhood funeral home is now owned by an international conglomerate. But you won’t know that. The name will have remained the same, and they may even have John himself waiting at the door for you. Yes, everything remains the same. Well, almost. They have probably redecorated and upgraded the casket showroom and may even have a separate facility where they sell urns and containers to the "burn and scatter" crowd. Great time and expense will go into trying to sell these folks a full funeral instead. Back when he was in charge, John Brown would have assumed that the consumer asking for a direct cremation wanted to keep things simple and inexpensive. The corporations, however, are not inclined to see anything but the bottom line, and stockholders never say "When!" They most certainly lowered the pay of the help, fired many, and now use a central facility for embalming, transportation, and answering calls. Auntie will probably arrive at the funeral home about the same time you arrive for the services. The mortuary is now simply a stage for bodies and amidst elaborate funereal accoutrements. If John Brown was inclined to show mercy to the poor or to those less inclined to pickle the dead and put them on display, he had a few low-priced caskets and even a cardboard container for cremation. But then again, John Brown didn’t have stockholders to whom he was accountable. So these items are not only gone, but the lower-end caskets will have the highest mark-ups. Cardboard containers? Forget it. A plain pine box could easily cost you a thousand bucks. But that’s just for starters. John Brown would have never thought of all the ingenious ways that corporations can to gouge the grieving. It never occurred to him to charge the same fee for storing a body as he would for embalming one. After all, embalming is the major expense of the mortuary, what with the EPA standards for toxic wastes, proper ventilation, all that equipment and clothing to protect everyone from the blood-borne pathogens, etc. Refrigeration, on the other hand, just costs pennies a day. But the corporate think tanks won’t let you off that easily. If you choose anything less than the full funeral, you’ll pay for it, one way or another. John, as his own boss and living in his own community and not a CEO living in Texas or Canada, often allowed survivors to see a body one last time without forcing them to pay for an embalming. If unembalmed viewing is allowed at all at the mortuary, it is often made mandatory for those who never wanted to visit the corpse in the first place. This so-called ID viewing will be an addition on the bill. Turning down a sheet and giving the family a few moments alone would have been a simple courtesy for John, a final measure of respect for the dead. Corporate courtesy is not so simple. Respect is reserved for cash, not cadavers. If you look closely at their price list, you will see that they even charge you to obey the law. Back when Aunt Mable was alive and well, she bought a burial plot next to Uncle George. Doing so gave her peace of mind. To the corporate mind, it simply means she’s paid a "piece" — a reservation, and nothing more. The money she paid back then won’t even be enough to open the grave today, much less close it. This in itself will probably cost more than she paid for the grave. The services (and associated prices) required to get a body underground boggles the mind. Besides the cost of "perpetual care" or an "endowment trust," comes additional charges for things like "grave enhancement fees." You may think the grave looks fine the way it is. You may even think those fees you paid for maintenance should have covered this. You’re not entitled to an opinion here, for her body now feeds Wall Street. "Grave enhancement fees" are for unknown improvements that might be required. Perhaps if the Joneses down on row three decide to erect a statue, the corporation feels that you too, must perpetually pay to keep up with them. Funny how death mimics life. So, perhaps you think you can escape this money trap and are even willing to counter the emotional pull to lay Aunt Mable next to her dear husband. Think again. Where will you go with his body? Trying to find the true ownership of a mortuary nowadays is a challenge. They are under no obligation to tell you. The chances are good that the mortuary down the street is probably corporate owned also, possibly the same corporation. The Federal Trade Commission finds anti-trust a weak argument. If you have any other mortuary to chose from, even if it’s another corporate one way across town, the FTC sees no problem with this. It’s still a choice; Brand A (SCI) or Brand B (Loewen). About the only choice left to you, dear reader, is to buy stock in your local mortuary. Then pray that they will price-gouge your fellow man. Pray that enough people will pass through those pearly gates before you do so that your survivors can sell the stock when you die (perhaps they will have enough money to pay for your funeral). Do what the Death Industry stock brokers do — pray for harsh winters and epidemics! |
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