Confessions of a Funeral Director

A funeral director has a lot to do in their work, including embalming bodies, which consists of taking all of the blood out of the body and replacing the blood with embalming fluid. The question is, though - is embalming really necessary?

Key Takeaways:

• Embalming does not guarantee that the body will be preserved forever. 
• In most states, the bodily fluids and contents end up being washed down the drain to end up in the sewer systems.
• Many people feel that embalming reduces disease. However, that is not true: un-embalmed bodies do not expose living people to disease.
• The most beneficial feature about embalming a body is that it guarantees that you will not be buried alive. However, in America, there are very good tests for ensuring people are really dead before burial.
• Embalming can give the living family and friends closure by seeing their dearly beloved looking good.
• Embalming is not the traditional way of doing death. In fact, embalming is a fairly new practice which started during the Civil War. Before that, the traditional burial was a natural burial, without embalming.
• Embalming is not good for the environment.
• Embalming is rarely needed.

"You can’t dig up an embalmed body from 1920 and expect it to be a perfect specimen of unblemished human anatomy. It’s possible that the body is in good shape, but not probable."

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