Correspondence with the Sponsor of Oregon SB 796

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

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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

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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

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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