With mandatory embalming and all, is it still possible to be buried alive in 1999?
Anything is possible.
“The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.” -George Carlin
Cecil once said: “If you’re not dead before the embalming, you sure will be afterwards.”
Embalming involves draining your blood and replacing it with a preservant. I think the chances of living though that are pretty slim.
I’m not entirely sure that being embalmed is mandatory in all states.
Lissa:
Not in South Carolina, anyway. Witness Strom Thurmond.
Sly: LOVE IT!!
Embalming is not mandatory in ANY states (see Caring for Your Own Dead by Lisa Carlson for a state by state listing of funeral regulations). I imagine live burial is also frowned upon in most states, but they can’t embalm everyone just to make sure!
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity
Back in the old days, (Middle Ages?) the catholic church required that a string be tied from a corpse’ toe to a bell while they waited to bury it. The theory was that if someone was buried alive, he/she would most surely curse God and be banned from heaven.
If the corpse moved while lying in state the bell would ring, alerting the attending monk.
Appearently, live burial wasn’t all that rare before the advent of stethoscopes etc.
Makes sense to me.
Peace,
mangeorge
“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” Mark Twain 1894
My mistake, Jess. Actually, I don’t even know if it’s mandatory where I hail from (Canada); just assumed it was. Guess I’ll have to double-check. Thanks for straightening things.
No problem, Omni. I made a nation-centric assumption that you were from the USA and I should be apologising to YOU. In fact, I don’t know whether or not Canada has mandatory embalming laws, maybe it does. I rather doubt it , though. According to most of the books I’ve read, the USA is one of the few counties where embalming is practised more or less as a matter of course. Which was why I posted – I do think that people should know that embalming is NOT mandatory because many people think that it IS.
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity
If anyone is curious about the gruesome details on being buried alive, snopes just added a page on the subject:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/buried.htm
Pretty chilling stuff.
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I’m sure that somewhere, someone is skipping the embalming process right now to save themselves some money.
Visit Spedrick’s Playground @ http://members.xoom.com/Spedrick/
My dad has this crazy idea for his coffin. Instead of having me and my sibs pay for one, he’s going to create his own- but not just any ordinary wooden box and its not going to be used just for his eternal rest. He has plans on making a Coffin/Entertainment center so that when he dies we can disassemble the entertainment center and reassemble it into a coffin. He’s got some other weird ideas that I’d rather not share.
oh, and on the buried alive topic- I saw ‘The Mummy’ the other day and it showed one guy getting buried alive with flesh eating beatles inside- talk about torture.
“I’m not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.”
– Calvin and Hobbes
O Bovine Diety - Dad sounds pretty selfish to me. When he shuffles off this mortal coil, where are you going to put the TV?
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
There sure are, Spedrick. And why not? Embalming is expensive and necessary. I have already told my husband that I ABSOLUTELY do not want to be embalmed, nor do I want an open coffin funeral. I want any usable organs to be harvested and whatever is leftover should be cremated – in the cheapest possible container. I would rather have a cardboard box than a ridiculously fancy and expensive coffin. I would rather my family have the money that would be spent on embalming me, tarting me up for “viewing,” and propping me into a coffin to unnerve my near and dear. No thanks!
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity
Having studied some Mortuary Science. The embalming fluid mentioned earlier is Formaldahide (sp?). And most states have regulations on burying/emblaming the dead for different religious practices. For example, people of Jewish faith are not embalmed at all and if I remember correctly, they can not be buried in a metal coffin.
Going back to the horrors of being buried alive, there was a recent record that was just set where some guy in England stayed buried for most of the year, beating out his mother’s old record. He had an air/food vent and a radio I think. I would not even want to imagine that. If you were not claustrophobic before that, I think that would definately make you.
Well, when I die, I would like to be cremated. And if my body feels anything afterwards like that, I can just keep my mind at rest that I won’t have any nerves to feel pain with for much longer.
SqrlCub
Jess, Yes!Yes! Yes!!! I SO agree with you! My husband and I have this on-going debate about funeral stuff. I agree with you: save the money, harvest my organs (give someone else a life, please!), stick me in a pine box, and get on with your life. I also feel cremation is a good alternative. He has a real problem with it. Well, they say opposites attract…
Ain’t it the truth, Bunny! My husband wants to be buried with a full military service. I, FINALLY, after 13 years together, got him to sign his organ donor card, but he views cremation as out of the question. In fact, the cremation thing upset him so, I finally told him he could bury me if I go first. The organ donation, cheap coffin and no emblaming or public viewing is non-negotiable, though! And I told him to stick me in whichever veteran’s cemetary he favors so we can share a plot – cheap AND sentimental, how often do you find both! If he goes first, I definately want to be roasted, though.
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity