Although Cecil has covered what happens during cremation, and WHY folks embalmed, as far as I can find he has yet to address this issue.
Is it true that your insides are sucked out with a high suction probe?
What exactly DOES happen???
I’m not a funeral director, but I’ve read about embalming here and there. From what I understand, the corpse is drained of all blood and bodily fluids. How, I don’t know. The blood and fluids are replaced with embalming chemicals (which chemicals, again don’t know) which aid in preserving the corpse for the wake.
Hopefully someone who is more versed in this matter will explain it better!
I think it’s an IV type thing… At least that’s what TV told me 
From the link…
That’s nice to know. 
…
“If I would have known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself” – Mickey Mantle
Thanks Astro.
My google search turned up lots of sites advising me not to soak my dope in embalming fluid (WTF?) and a few very superficial descriptions, obviously designed for folks who would really rather not know the details.
I actually feel better about it now.
I’m not sure if you’re going WTF because you don’t understand it, or you don’t understand why people would do it.
If you don’t understand what it means, it has to do with dipping marijuana in embalming fluid. They do it to get at the formaldehyde. Marijuana, when laced with formaldehyde, supposedly- and probably assuredly- adds to the ‘high’.
It’s not as uncommon as you’d think it was.
Why they’d want to do that is anyone’s guess- from what I understand, you can freak out pretty easily if it’s not done right.
There was a show about the funeral trade on “Discovery” a couple of months ago. The camera followed 3 students during their internships at various funeral homes in a city (I don’t remember which). One part of the program dealt with their embalming experiences, in that the camera recorded their work in the home’s morgue – everything from draining the fluids to applying cosmetics. I wish I could remember the specifics…
Cnote: Couldn’t grasp the WHY. Obviously I am seriously out of the loop.
kiz: I saw the show, but knew there were missing parts.
No one discussed plugging orifices that might leak, or repairing injuries, or how to stop someones mouth from hanging open. I had heard a rumor that they used a RIVET!
According to the link, superglue is popular, as well as needle and thread. Not pretty, I guess, but better than POWER TOOLS!!!
Well, can you blame them for NOT showing all that?
I read somewhere that they superglue eyelids shut. As for the jaw hanging open…
All I can think of is Jacob Marley’s ghost from A Christmas Carol having to untie the rag wrapped lengthwise around his face and his jaw dropping open before he started speaking…:eek:
BTW, if they use needle and thread, or rivets, or something similar…how do they make them not show during the viewing???
POWER TOOLS??? AAAAAAACK! :eek: :eek: :eek:
I don’t know whether the US has laws which specifically relate to the embalming process, so I’m going to hold off for a few posts about posting the inticate details involved. They are pretty easy to find on the www anyway as more than one political leader has been embalmed and the processes involved are intricately described and can be called up with the most minimal of searches.
I’m always mindful when I even think about responding to these kind of posts that - inevitably - in a commmunity of this size there are people whose loved ones who’ve been subjected to medical procedures in death that they really would prefer not to know about.
I pretty much don’t feel OK about posting links which would answer the OP here. I pretty much also think that the OP has been given enough information to find the answers themself.