April 30, 2009

Talk of the Nation: Home Funerals

National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" aired a segment on home funerals today, featuring Max Alexander, a freelance journalist who shared the very different funerals of his father and father-in-law, days apart, in an article for Smithsonian Magazine; Lisa Carlson, executive director of Funeral Ethics Organization; and Glenn Taylor, owner of a funeral home in Owensboro, Ky.

April 24, 2009

Correspondence with the Sponsor of Oregon SB 796

Here is email correspondence between me and Senator Vicki Walker of Oregon, sponsor of SB 796:

_______________________________________

From: Holly Stevens [mailto:holly_stevens@mac.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:16 PM
To: Sen Walker
Subject: Please strike down SB796

Dear Senator Walker,

I am writing with grave concerns about SB 796, which contains the following language:

“An individual may not practice as a death care consultant unless the individual is licensed as a death care consultant under section 4 of this 2009 Act. Regardless of any title used by the individual, an individual practices as a death care consultant if the individual offers, for payment, consultations or workshops to individuals or groups regarding funeral or final disposition services.”

I am the project coordinator for Undertaken With Love, a national not-for-profit initiative aimed at supporting families that want to participate more fully in the care of their loved ones' remains until burial or cremation. In all but a handful of states, including Oregon, it is legal for a family to care for its own dead until burial or cremation without the involvement of a licensed funeral provider. While it is entirely possible for a motivated family to acquire the knowledge and skills needed for such a "home funeral," the process is eased considerably when a group assists. That's why we developed our manual, "Undertaken With Love: A Home Funeral Guide for Congregations and Committees," to make it possible for a group to learn together what their legal rights and responsibilities are in their particular state, how to care for a body for up to three days in a home environment, and how to form a home funeral committee in the community to support families that want to care for their own dead.
It is our hope and intention for our manual to be used by both religious and secular groups -- especially congregational committees and hospice support groups -- that want to learn how to begin supporting family-directed funerals in their midst.

As this statute is worded, a pastoral care minister that received an honorarium for assisting a family with its home funeral tasks would be vulnerable to charges of practicing as a death care consultant without a license. So could a hospice that offered a workshop for families on how to host a home vigil before arranging for burial or cremation. I can't think of any way that such charges would serve to protect the public.

With surging interest being shown by Americans in environmentally sound funeral practices, more families are inquiring about home funerals and their rights and responsibilities in caring for their own dead. Believe me, the funeral trade is not going to be a generous source of information and support. State legislators, aware that state funeral regulatory boards are populated with funeral trade insiders, should ever vigilant to support family rights and options in death care, not collude with funeral trade groups to curtail them!

I hope you will move decisively to dismantle this hostile piece of legislation.

Holly Stevens, Project Leader
Undertaken WIth Love: A Home Funeral Guide for Congregations and Communities
hstevens@homefuneralmanual.org
www.homefuneralmanual.org
5918 Pepper Road
Oak Ridge, N.C. 27310-9631
(336) 643-5947

_______________________________________

On Apr 23, 2009, at 8:02 PM, Sen Walker wrote:

Dear Ms. Stevens,

Thank you for writing regarding SB 796. I have received emails and phone calls from folks in your industry who have referred to this bill as everything from “inept” to “far-reaching.” In addition, many have accused me of sponsoring this bill at the direction of the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board, and feel it is an attempt to “shut down your industry.” All of these statements are false and unfounded. I encourage you to read the entire bill, as amended, to understand that we are not singling out your industry.

This bill was drafted at my request because I strongly believe that consumers need to have protections as they do in many other areas of the law. The funeral business in Oregon is not overregulated – far from it. As a court reporter, I have been involved in at least two cases over the years in the court system where consumers have been duped and betrayed by certain practitioners. There is a reason for state regulation for anyone involved in the business of providing funeral services or advising consumers about death care.

I make no attempt to stifle anyone's voice in the legislative process. In fact, I encouraged several of you to either attend the public hearing, or submit written testimony to the committee members in the Senate Health Care & Veteran’s Affairs Committee. The public hearing has already passed, and the bill will move out of committee and onto the Senate floor. If you have objections to the bill, I suggest you attend the public hearing once it reaches the House. I have every intention on proceeding with this legislation, and will do everything I can to ensure passage this session.

Sen. Vicki L. Walker

_______________________________________

Dear Sen. Walker:

Thank you for your prompt and direct response to my earlier email. I appreciate your taking the time to write.

I did take the time last night to read the full text as amended. (For some reason, I was not able to find the full text online when I wrote my earlier note, so was writing with awareness of only the one paragraph about the licensing requirement for death care consultants.)

I did not use the terms "inept" or "far reaching" in my note, nor did I make any guesses about your motivations in sponsoring the bill. Neither would I call my work an "industry" since I do not myself derive a penny from what for me is a passion and a calling, to empower families to care for their own dead. I am a home funeral advocate, and some of my fellow advocates, it is true, do earn some income from their work as consultants, while others do not. My experience with home funeral advocates and educators is that the profit motive is either absent or secondary to the humanitarian motive in their work.

But let me say this: I recognize that while I know of no death "midwives" or educators who are in this work primarily for the money, that if this work ever became lucrative, it would attract those who follow money, and therefore, we need to address how best to ensure that this occupation doesn't morph into something that hurts rather than assists families who want to care for their own dead. Let me say, too, that I am completely in your court in your belief that "consumers need to have protections as they do in many other areas of the law." In addition to my unpaid work as a home funeral advocate, I am also active in my local Funeral Consumers Alliance chapter, and as you might surmise, I'm most appreciative in that venue of the protections afforded consumers by the Funeral Rule of the Federal Trade Commission.

The problem is this: State regulatory boards -- Oregon's among them -- are populated primarily by the very people they are established to regulate. Oregon does have four public (non-trade) members on its board, but they are a weak minority. These boards do have helpful and important powers to license and withhold licenses from those who provide funeral goods and services, and by and large, they do a good job of preventing the most blatant acts of wrongdoing. However, I have seen many, many times how these boards move to protect their turf and decrease consumer choice under the guise of protecting the public. I'm appreciative of the fact that, unlike many such state regulatory boards, Oregon's has more than just funeral home owners; it also includes cemetery owners and crematory operators. But there is _NO_ representation assured on the Oregon board for home funeral educators and consultants, yet this bill you are sponsoring gives the board the power to create and administer exams that a "death care consultant" would have to pass in order to receive a license. What protections are there that such an exam would have content designed to protect the public and NOT simply to raise so high a bar that the board would be merely using its power to limit competition?

I am writing from outside Oregon, so perhaps that is why I did not receive any notice of public hearings or invitations to submit written testimony. I wrote my note to you on the same day that I first became aware of the issue. Admittedly, FCA chapters and home educators who _should_ be watching their state legislators are often asleep at the wheel when something like this comes up. Because we are _NOT_ as well organized as funeral industry trade groups, we sometimes drop the ball. It is unfortunate that more time was not built into the process to bring more parties into the discussion before the legislation was so far along in the process.

Thanks for your response. I believe I join you in your basic intentions, as you have stated them -- just differ with you on the effects of this piece of legislation.

Holly Stevens, Project Leader
Undertaken WIth Love: A Home Funeral Guide for Congregations and Communities
hstevens@homefuneralmanual.org
www.homefuneralmanual.org
5918 Pepper Road
Oak Ridge, N.C. 27310-9631
(336) 643-5947

April 23, 2009

Needed: Home Funeral Images Free for Noncommercial Use


Steve Burns
, a graduate student and film production instructor at Indiana University whose students filmed the "When Death Knocks" symposium in Greensboro in March, just emailed me to ask if I knew of any good sources of still images (photographs or drawings) of family-directed home funerals.

This is a real need. If you have images of home funerals and have the authority to grant permission for others to use your photos for noncommercial purposes, please let me know. It would be wonderful if you would consider placing a Creative Commons Noncommercial-Attribution-ShareAlike or similarly generous copyright on your images so that others can use them for humanitarian, noncommercial uses. This would increase blogging about home funerals as well as enhance the readability of websites and publications that include content about home funerals. In fact, I would like to see the Undertaken With Love website start a photo gallery of such images that others could use.

If you have such images to share, please indicate whether you wish to use the Creative Commons license recommended here or another similar one and the following details:
  • Name of the copyright owner, to which the image should be attributed
  • If that is not you, how we can contact the copyright owner for proper permissions
  • Any descriptions of the photo that you would like to make public, such as date, place, and what or who is depicted
  • Your relationship to the deceased's next of kin. If you are not an immediate family member, please give us contact information for the next of kin so that we can obtain their permission also.
What kinds of images are needed? Some examples:
  • Handmade or decorated caskets, open or closed
  • Tasteful pictures of the deceased in a home funeral environment
  • Pictures of children assisting in some manner with the home funeral
  • Pictures of ceremonies in a home environment
  • Artwork created for use in a home funeral
  • Handmade invitations to a home funeral
  • Image showing the casket being transported in some manner by loved ones
  • Discrete images of the process of bathing and dressing the body -- perhaps a close up of a hand being washed, or a necklace being lovingly attached
  • Images of a finished gravesite
  • Images of a table of mementoes or other items collected for a funeral
  • Images of a meal being shared connected to a home funeral
Thanks for your consideration.

April 21, 2009

Oregon Law Puts Home Funeral Educators, Families at Risk

Alert! April 21, 2009--Josh Slocum, executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance, informs us that the Oregon Senate is considering a bill, SB 796, that would require anyone who receives payment for educating groups or individuals about funeral options to be licensed as a death care consultant. Here is the wording:

“An individual may not practice as a death care consultant unless the individual is licensed as a death care consultant under section 4 of this 2009 Act. Regardless of any title used by the individual, an individual practices as a death care consultant if the individual offers, for payment, consultations or workshops to individuals or groups regarding funeral or final disposition services.”

Slocum has written the bill's sponsor, Sen. Vicki Walker, about his concerns. His letter describes the bill's measures as an infringement on First Amendment rights of funeral consumer and home funeral advocates and educators and as a strategic move by funeral industry insiders to curtail the growing home funeral movement. Slocum's letter recognizes the need for a public discussion to begin around the subject of how funeral regulations might need to be updated to consider new developments including surging interest in family-directed funerals, but he rightly calls for such discussions to be transparent, public and involve all players.

Take action now! Email Sen. Vicki Walker, write to her at 900 Court St. NE, S-309
Salem, OR 9730, or call her at (503) 986-1707.

You can read more about the issue at the FCA website. We're also inviting comment from Funeral Consumers Alliance of Oregon and home funeral educators and practitioners in that state. Let us know what you know about this bill, what your concerns are, how we can help. Email us so we can support you.

April 16, 2009

Presentations in Utah

I'll be speaking on at Toastmasters in Provo Utah Monday April 20th 2009 and then at a Conference on Natural Living on April 25th in West Jordan Utah. My tentative title is "What kind of Funeral Consumer Are You?"
Joyce Mitchell

April 11, 2009

North Carolina Home Funeral Group Seeks Others



La Grange, N.C.--Cindy Freeman reports from her hometown -- situated between Goldsboro and Kinston, east of Raleigh -- that she is interested in gauging interest in using "Undertaken With Love" to explore home funerals. La Grange has been served by a single family-based funeral home for more than 100 years. A family graveyard was created on the family homestead there in the late 1800s but has since become overgrown with trees. For her, a home funeral would simply be an extension of her involvement over the years with home birthing, home schooling and home worship.

"The funny thing is, I am not doing things that have never been done before, just going back to the way things used to be done that many are not doing now," she observes in sensing that she is regarded by some as a maverick. Yet her friends are showing an interest in home funerals. She doesn't want to make her email address public on this blog, but you can email me if you want to be in touch with Cindy, and I'll pass your email address on to her.

Thanks, Cindy, for writing. I hope it will lead others to send us posts to seek others interested in forming a small group to use "Undertaken With Love."

April 6, 2009

Orem Utah's 1st home funeral committee mtg

The first Home Funeral Committee meeting of 4 women was held in Orem Utah on Sat March 21st. It was decided we would all spend time reading the manual on our own, find individuals that work at the various local hospitals to help us find the right contact person to approach about learning each hospital's protocol for release of the dead to family.

It was also decided that we needed a reference booklet with all of Utah funeral laws compiled in it so that we could refer to it when we are faced with immediate questioning. That booklet is now complete. I plan to post it online within the next month or two (after everyone gets a chance to suggest edits).

Joyce

April 5, 2009

Update on Colorado Funeral Bill

We just heard from Natural Transitions of Colorado that the Appropriations Committee of the Colorado House of Representatives has voted to send HB 1202 on funeral regulation back to the first committee - the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee.

"This is a great sign," the email alert says. "The first committee had voted unanimously in favor of this bill. At that point, the only input they had received was from the big corporate funeral lobby who is backing this measure. Now we have a chance to really influence the outcome of this bill in a significant way."

The original bill text effectively would make family-directed home funerals illegal. Home funeral advocates are being asked to email Appropriations Committee members to voice their concerns. The Natural Transitions site offers details on how to respond. Here are the email addresses:

House Business Affairs and Labor Committee

11 members

Representative Rice, Chair
Representative Casso, Vice-Chair
Representative Liston, Ranking Republican
Representatives Balmer, Bradford, Gagliardi, Priola, Ryden, Scanlan, Soper, Stephens


Joe Rice, District 38 (Democrat)
Phone: 303-866-2953 (Capitol)
Email: joe.rice.house@state.co.us

Edward Casso, District 32 (Democrat)
Phone: 303-866-2964
Email:edward.casso.house@state.co.us

Larry Liston, District 16 (Republican)
Phone: 303-866-2965
Email: larry.liston.house@state.co.us

David Balmer, District 39 (Republican)
Phone: 303-866-2935
Email: david.balmer.house@state.co.us

Laura Bradford, District 55 (Republican)
Phone: 303-866-2583
Email: laurabradford55@gmail.com

Sara Gagliardi, District 27 (Democrat)
Phone: 303-866-2962
Email: sara.gagliardi.house@state.co.us

Kevin Priola, District 30 (Republican)
Phone: 303-866-2912
Email: kpriola@gmail.com

Su Ryden, District 36, (Democrat) - HB1202 CO-SPONSOR
Phone: 303-866-2942
Email: su.ryden.house@state.co.us

Christine Scanlan, District 56 (Democrat)
Phone: 303-866-2952
Email: christine.scanlan.house@state.co.us

John Soper, District 34 (Democrat)
Phone: 303-866-2931
Email: john.soper.house@state.co.us

Amy Stephens, District 20 (Republican)
Phone: 303-866-2924
Email: amy.stephens.house@state.co.us


Individual emails are best, but here is also a list to copy and paste
amy.stephens.house@state.co.us; john.soper.house@state.co.us; christine.scanlan.house@state.co.us; su.ryden.house@state.co.us;
kpriola@gmail.com; sara.gagliardi.house@state.co.us; laurabradford55@gmail.com;david.balmer.house@state.co.us; larry.liston.house@state.co.us; Edward.casso.house@state.co.us; joe.rice.house@state.co.us;

Home Funerals Topic of Mortuary Science Class

Rev. Lynn Acquafondata of Final Journey Home and Pete McQuillin of Green Burial Pittsburgh taught a class this past Monday on home funerals and the green burial movement at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. On hand to cover this event was KDKA's Mary Robb Jackson. This story will air on KDKA on Tuesday, April 7th at 5:00 PM. Check it out.