Posted on 11/14/2008 12:50:52 PM PST by Scythian
The disturbance of human remains in burial grounds is to be allowed for the first time since the early Victorian era to deal with a shortage of graves, The Times has learnt.
Under a test scheme to begin in the new year, local authorities across the country will be allowed to exhume remains and rebury them deeper to create space for further burials on top. In some cases, new inscriptions will be added to the existing headstone to ensure that the heritage of the grave is not destroyed. Damaged or insignificant headstones would be removed and replaced with only the new name.
The move comes amid an acute shortage of burial grounds in London and other urban areas, where many cemeteries have already run out of space. It would also ease the difficulty of the disposal of bodies in the event of a pandemic.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
One word...cremation
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
Can’t they outsource burials to China or something?
Dont they do this in national cemetaries? If the Vet dies, the spuose is put on top?
If there was a pandemic there would be widespread cremation. We couldn’t keep up with the burials.
Our burials are too elaborate anyway. In the Bible when it says “his bones were laid with his ancestors” that is literally what it means. They had a cave where the body was place. Eventually it was just a pile of bones all mixed together. Not considered disrespectful at all.
What we do today is disrespectful. Draining the blood and embalming the corpse. And for what? We bury people in coffins that are in hermetically sealed valuts.
Maybe burial at sea will make a comeback.
Artist: Prine John
Song: Please Don’t Bury Me
Album: Great Days: The John Prine Anthology John Prine
Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:
Chorus:
Please don’t bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I’d druther have “em” cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don’t mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get “em” out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I’ve got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose
Repeat Chorus
Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don’t pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It’s a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
Repeat Chorus
[ More Prine John Lyrics ]
Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:
Chorus:
Please don’t bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I’d druther have “em” cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don’t mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get “em” out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I’ve got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose
Repeat Chorus
Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don’t pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It’s a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye
Repeat Chorus
Hugh Hefner owns the grave next to Marilyn Monroe. He probably wouldn’t mind moving over to her side.
My greatest fear... to be buried beneath an insignificant headstone......
:-)
The fake boobs will outlast the both of you.
I worked as a civilian programmer for the Marine Corps Exchange at Camp Pendleton back in the 70s. We got a new colonel, who proceeded to talk to us about motivation. It went like this:
Arlington cemetery is so crowded that graves are dug pretty deep to allow multiple burials in the same plot.
Around midnight a drunk staggers through the cemetery and falls into a freshly-dug, but unfilled grave - a good 15 feet deep. He tries to climb/jump out but after a dozen tries he gives up and goes to sleep.
About an hour later another drunk walks by and falls into the same grave, and try as he might, he can’t get out.
The guy makes so much noise it wakes the first visitor, who has remained undetected. After watching the Newbie try to get out, he says, “Buddy, you ain’t EVER gettin’ out of here.”
The Newbie cleared the grave in one jump. Now THAT’s motivation.
“Draining the blood and embalming the corpse.”
You mean you don’t want to be all made up to look like a half melted wax dummy so everyone can say how much you look like yourself?
'insignificant headstones'?
I agree with you (I've told my family I want to be cremated), BUT...
...there was a good reason for the modern re-invention of enbalming.
During the US Civil War, there were no refrigerated train cars. The bodies of soldiers killed in battle, or who died from illness, would putrefy beyond the point when their families could hold a traditional funeral for them.
So many entrepreneurs went into the mortician business and headed for the battlefields.
This "service" is usually not needed anymore, but our culture has never looked back (with the exception of small groups like Orthodox Jews who have kept their tradition of next-day burials and prohibition against enbalming).
It was talking to someone involved with an Orthodox Jewish funeral home that I realized this wasn’t needed.
They refrigerate the bodies. Embalming is not needed at all even for a burial. I also found out that our state DOES NOT require embalming, but funeral directors won’t tell you that.
Embaling is a $500+ charge for nothing. If you are going to bury the body within just a few days, all you need to do is find a mortuary that will refrigerate the body. Many funeral homes that are Orthodox Jewish will host non-Jewish funerals also.
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