comments

For David's Post:  click
When you first presented this in class I was unsure what you meant by a funeral director being required to "handle" the human remains. For me, this seemed a little alarming as it seemed to imply that there was a chance for some director to still argue that the body had to be embalmed for the sake of being preserved during transportation and showing. However, after reading the full version of your project, I'm still a little confused. Are they literally required to handle the remains, meaning, be in charge of the transportation, or are families still expected to blindly pass off the deceased? A little more clarification on this would have made the post easier to follow.

As for my own opinion, I don't feel like the presence of a funeral director - provided their role was purely for supervision - would defeat the purpose of the home funeral. From what you've provided us with, the families are still at charge and there's nothing to suggest that the director may respectfully step aside or chose to murmur, "I'm sorry for your loss" just like any other person the family might talk to would say.

For Leah's Post: click
First off, I really like how you tied this into your last project for the Birth Unit. Many people agree that death and life are highly relative and yet, so many people don't like speaking or witnessing death rituals. That idea that you've followed in discussing this seems to follow along with the idea of the course very nicely.

Also, in class, you said that "money doesn't matter" in terms of the funeral and here you said that a family uses their own materials.  From this I gather that it's safe to assume that a family doesn't feel the pressure to buy or create some standard, fantastic coffin/casket for the decease to outdo everyone else. Interesting.