Embalming statistics

[naita]

Snopes’ article on whether or not they tap a dead pope with a silver hammer to be sure he’s not faking it (http://www.snopes.com/religion/hammer.asp) mentions parenthetically that “These days, given western society’s passion for embalming its departed loved ones, the chances of being prematuredly buried at almost nil, because none so preserved stand a chance of surviving the process.”
I immediatly thought to email the good Barbara Mikkelson and tell her that this is only true if you define “Western Society” as “The USofA”, but then I realized that I really only know about Norway. There could indeed be a passion for embalming in the rest of the western word.

After a quick tour around the web I was no wiser. The article on embalming in wikipedia claims the practice is not legal in the Netherlands except for preparing bodies for international transport, or if you’re royal. Can any Dutch dopers confirm or deny?

On a small selection of web pages for Norwegian Funeral Bureaus there was no mention of embalming at all, and I’ve never heard of anyone here being embalmed, but I’ve only ever attended two funerals.

The only funeral stats I could find for Norway were on cremations, which showed an odd variation from as much as 71% of all funerals in a city to as few as 9%, but the overall was 32%.

So is there a passion for embalming in North America? Europe? The rest of the world?

[Uncommon_Sense]

@naita

Snopes’ article on whether or not they tap a dead pope with a silver hammer to be sure he’s not faking it (http://www.snopes.com/religion/hammer.asp) mentions parenthetically that “These days, given western society’s passion for embalming its departed loved ones, the chances of being prematuredly buried at almost nil, because none so preserved stand a chance of surviving the process.”
I immediatly thought to email the good Barbara Mikkelson and tell her that this is only true if you define “Western Society” as “The USofA”, but then I realized that I really only know about Norway. There could indeed be a passion for embalming in the rest of the western word.

So is there a passion for embalming in North America? Europe? The rest of the world?

In America, if you intend to be buried (in a typical funeral setting) or shipped off to the Med college, then you will be embalmed. The majority of persons in this country will be embalmed upon death. I think cremation is becoming more popular, but is still way behind burial.

[naita]

@Uncommon Sense

In America, if you intend to be buried (in a typical funeral setting) or shipped off to the Med college, then you will be embalmed. The majority of persons in this country will be embalmed upon death. I think cremation is becoming more popular, but is still way behind burial.

Just for emphasis, since the options in the US seem to be embalming+burial and cremation, the options in Norway are being buried raw, and being buried coo… eh, I mean, being buried in a casket unembalmed, and being buried in a can as ashes.

[WhyNot]

@Uncommon Sense

In America, if you intend to be buried (in a typical funeral setting) or shipped off to the Med college, then you will be embalmed. The majority of persons in this country will be embalmed upon death. I think cremation is becoming more popular, but is still way behind burial.

However, if you choose to donate your body to forensic or anthropologic reasearch (for example, the Body Farm), you will not be embalmed, as that would interfere with their decomposition studies. But very few people choose to do this.

[PoorYorick]

@Uncommon Sense

In America, if you intend to be buried (in a typical funeral setting) or shipped off to the Med college, then you will be embalmed.

Even though funeral personnel often imply differently, embalming is not generally required by law if the funeral is held soon after death.