By Malcolm Curtis, Victoria Times - Colonist
Burying your dearly departed in the backyard should be as natural as trees in the forest. So says a Victoria teacher in the vanguard of a movement to drag one of society’s biggest taboos out of the closet. The death business - a multi-million-dollar industry in this retirement community - removes the intimacy of taking care of loved ones when they die, says Marie Roulleau.
Why not let people look after their dead relatives instead of passing on the job to funeral home and medical professionals?
B.C.’s Cemetery and Funerals Act bans the burial of humans anywhere other than cemeteries and mausoleums. The only exceptions are deaths in remote areas.
That should change, says Roulleau, 43, who takes an open and practical approach to death. “There is a perception that a body is somehow unhygienic,” she says. “Yet people people bury their cats and dogs all the time, and in pioneer days people regularly buried their relatives on their own.”
The possibility of burying the dead in gardens or nature preserves has become increasingly popular in Britain. Backyard burials are legal in that country, provided certain rules are followed (like avoiding burial near a river and securing approval of neighbors).
Roulleau would like to see the idea catch on here.
“Most North Americans recoil at the thought of handling their loved ones themselves,” she says.
“I feel the reverse. I think it’s weird to hand over loved ones to someone I don’t know - it’s very impersonal.”
Roulleau was raised in a French village, where residents looked after family deaths in the home. People were allowed to live at home right to their last moments. Afterwards, the body would lie on the living room couch for two or three days. The local carpenter would build a box and a simple burial was carried out without a lot of fuss.
By contrast, about 80 per cent of people now die in hospitals in North America, up from 50 per cent in 1950.
Many end up chained to life-support machines or pumped full of drugs that extend lives without quality, says Roulleau.
“I really got interested in the topic because I certainly don’t want that kind of medicalized death when my time comes.”
She became interested in natural burial practices and natural death after learning about the U.K’s Natural Death Centre.
Director Nicholas Albery helped establish the centre with the aim of providing a “natural death” philosophy to parallel the natural childbirth movement.
Roulleau, who is offering a workshop on the subject next week, has discovered alternative approaches to death are environmentally friendly - and cheaper than conventional methods.
Cremation, the most popular way to dispose of the dead in Greater Victoria, costs a minimum of $600.
The average burial, complete with a casket and funeral home service, costs $4,000 to $5,000.
But the expense can be much heavier than that. Caskets of rare wood or bronze, padded with pillows and adorned with pictures, fetch $20,000 or more. A plot in a cemetery, a concrete vault and a headstone add more costs.
Roulleau says there are environmental concerns about liquid formaldehyde (formalin), used to embalm bodies, seeping into groundwater from cemeteries.
Stephen Olson, assistant manager of Sands Funeral Chapel in Victoria, says he is unaware of any B.C. studies of the subject.
But an Ontario study concluded that embalming fluids posed no environmental hazards, said Olson, a board member of the Funeral Services Association of B.C., responsible for public health issues.
“By the time [formalin] is in the body it is so diluted by water and other chemicals that it poses no risk.”
Olson notes that embalming is not legally required but it is recommended for several reasons. Embalming disinfects the body, killing off bacteria and viruses, it preserves the body for an extended period of time and it restores it “to a more natural appearance.”
But Roulleau says, beyond reasons of vanity for the surviving relatives, embalming is not necessary.
In some cases, she says, simply placing ice on the body kept at home can prevent it from giving off odors for two to three days.
Shrouds, simple cloth or woollen materials used to wrap bodies, are less wasteful way of wrapping bodies for burial, she says. But provincial law says bodies must be placed in a “rigid container or casket” sufficient to transport them and “prevent a health hazard.”
Meanwhile, cremation carries its own concerns about energy waste and air pollution, Roulleau says.
She notes that human bodies are filled with chemicals, teeth fillings can lead to mercury vapor emissions, and plastic prosthetics like heart valves can also cause pollution when burned.
Mary Freeman, provincial cemeteries registrar, says B.C. law allows individuals to prepare a body for burial or cremation without going to a funeral home. However, a pamphlet put out by the province recommends against making your “own arrangements without a funeral provider because complications can arise that are difficult to deal with at a time of emotional stress.”
A permit is required for burial or cremation from the Vital Statistics department.
Freeman, who was appointed registrar this month, says no changes are contemplated to provincial death laws. But she expressed interest in Roulleau’s views.
“We’re always interested to know what other countries are doing.”
Roulleau says she expects her views to be challenged by the medical and funeral home industry. “People who want to challenge the status quo can always expect a lot of resistance.”
Janet Ricciuti, executive director of the Funeral Service Association, admits she would have to read more about the “natural death” movement to comment about it. But she says many people may not be prepared to take on all the responsibilities undertaken by funeral homes “due to their emotional state.”
Funeral homes attend to a multitude of details required by law that most people are unaware of, says Ricciuti. The nature of a person’s death, especially if it is from infectious disease, adds further complications, she says. The association, which represents 123 funeral providers across B.C., has a toll-free phone number, 1- 800-665-3899, offering information about all aspects of services the industry provides.
-TO LEARN What: Workshop on Natural (Green) Death, one of a series of workshops on sustainable living skills.
Where: Greater Victoria Public Library multi-purpose room, 735 Broughton St.,Victoria.
When: May 7, 6:45-8:45 p.m.
Costs: $5.
Further information: Contact Marie Roulleau at 380-0624 or contact the Natural Death Centre, 20 Heber Rd.,London, England NW2 6AA.