Sarah Zhang enlightens folks to the mysteries surrounding alkaline hydrolysis aka liquid cremation or green cremation , on Gizmodo.
“The biggest misunderstanding is that they think the whole body goes down the drain,” Regnier says. Even with that misunderstanding out of the way, though, it’s easy to see why people might be squeamish about being “poured down the pipe.” But that might just show our ignorance about how dead bodies are usually treated. Blood and body liquids are poured down the drain when coroners do embalming — and burned particles pouring out through the smokestacks in cremation.
At the Mayo Clinic, which has used alkaline hydrolysis as a method of disposition after body donation for years, 100% of the families who have been offered green cremation as an option of disposition have accepted. It’s a pity it continues to be a struggle to make it available to everyone. It is currently legal in only 8 states and a bill that would make it legal in Ohio is under consideration.
