Burial or Cremation -
Who Decides After You Die?

Nine years ago, Michigan adopted a Funeral Representative statute. Under that statute an individual can name a Funeral Representative in his or her Will, Patient Advocate designation, or in any other writing that makes that designation. A Funeral Representative serves in the capacity as a fiduciary to assure that he or she conducts the deceased’s instructions, if any [MCL 700.3206]. Yet that assumes directions for the disposition of the decedent’s bodily remains were provided to be followed. If there are no directions, then the Funeral Representative gets to decide what is done with the decedent’s remains. With Baby Boomers now heading towards the hereafter, will their children see the value in a $10,000 funeral that does not have meaning for them?

In the absence of specific directions, a Funeral Representative is given the right and power under the statute to make decisions about funeral arrangements, and the handling, disposition, or disinterment of a decedent’s body, including and not limited to, decisions about cremation and the right to receive from the funeral establishment and possess the decedent’s cremated remains immediately after cremation. The handling, disposition or disinterment of the decedent’s body must, however, be under the supervision of a person licensed to practice mortuary science in Michigan.

If an individual names a Funeral Representative, but does not provide specific instructions with respect to the disposition of the individual’s bodily remains, does the Funeral Representative get to make that decision on their own, guided by their own values? Probably. This then raises the question what options are available to a Funeral Representative who is left with the decision what to do with the decedent’s bodily remains? Some interesting ‘trends’ now exist across the country, and many new ones are appearing.

Fifty years ago, only 5% of decedents (or their families) opted to have their bodily remains cremated; most decedents (or their family members) opted for burial. Yet by 2015 the cremation rate had surpassed the burial rate. By 2022 the cremation rate was 59.3% and the burial rate was only 35.7% according to the National Funeral Directors Association NFDA Cremation and Burial Report 7 (July 2022). This same Funeral Director Association also predicts that by 2040, almost 80% of the United States population will be cremated and only about 16% will be buried. Between the two that is not 100%. But other options also exist.

To steal the phrase of the late TV promoter, Ron Popiel (the father of the infamous ‘pocket fisherman’) that’s not all, folks! With trend towards cremation, there are now new ways to ‘dispose’ of the cremains. The creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry had his remains sent into space. Others have had the cremains used to make family mementos like cups or plates, beyond just sitting in an urn on the mantle.

Some disposal options are a bit ‘down to earth’ like green burials, which are intended to limit the environmental effects of burying a body (along with being more frugal). Other decedents may direct to have their body buried quickly and without embalming fluids, out of a concern for the environment, or the use of more environmentally friendly embalming fluids instead of formaldehyde.

More controversial is the growing method of water cremation, or acquamation. This method of disposal has the decedent’s body placed in a stainless-steel tube along with ‘lye’ and water, which is then heated. The body is effectively dissolved and the resulting affluent is then disposed down the sewer. In 2021, Nobel prize winner Desmond Tutu’s chose acquamation for his own cadaver. While this sounds gristly, to put this bodily disposition method in perspective, twenty-eight states have now legalized water cremation, including Michigan! However, it should be noted that the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine announced that Catholics cannot use water cremation as it ‘does not show respect for the human body.’

And then there is the State of Washington which in 2019 legalized human composting, which is a method of disposal that is now legal in ten states. [It should come as no surprise that the Catholic Bishops’ Committee also opposes human composting.]

In sum, there are many more bodily disposition options than just cremation or burial. The point is, do you want to leave this decision to your Funeral Representative? That person, if a family member or heir, may not want to spend much money out of the probate estate for a fancy funeral and expensive burial casket which simply depletes their inheritance. Or, that person might carry a grudge postmortem and use their power to dispose of the cadaver to ‘get even’ or with a perverse or sick sense of humor.

It is your body, and it should be your choice how your cadaver should be disposed of on your death.