Year: 2025

Mortuary science is a field of study that prepares individuals to become morticians and funeral directors. Students learn how to respectfully preserve and handle deceased bodies and how to support grieving families.

Many people assume that a mortuary is similar to a funeral home. However, this theory is flawed.

Preparing the Deceased for Farewell

Mortuaries serve as a physical and emotional space for grieving families to say their final farewells. They are staffed by compassionate individuals who take their work seriously and have an unwavering sense of responsibility. They are committed to respecting the wishes of those who have made pre-need arrangements and ensuring that religious or cultural traditions are observed if requested.

To prepare the deceased for viewing, the funeral director washes their face and hair, sutures any incisions and dries them. They then apply cosmetics to make their appearance look natural. They may use specialized mortuary makeup or regular makeup found in stores.

To embalm the body, they begin by making an incision on the deceased’s right side of the neck to access their carotid artery and jugular vein. They remove blood and replace it with a formaldehyde-based fluid.

Keeping Accurate Records

Whether they’re holding a body for viewing or performing cremation, funeral homes and mortuaries must keep accurate records for every body in their care. This is important for meeting legal requirements and providing transparency to customers during a difficult time. It also helps ensure that families receive services they can trust.

While mortuary law has some similarities to other legal fields like health and property, it is unique in its focus on the treatment and final disposition of human remains. This is an area of law that requires special expertise to navigate, including the ability to stay current on changing regulations and empathetically support grieving families.

Using a digital document management system can help funeral home and cemetery staff streamline record-keeping processes, reduce errors, and make documents easily accessible for their clients.

Supporting Families in Grief

Mortuary and funeral home staff members support grieving families by providing a safe and compassionate environment. They also offer education about grief, helping individuals understand and accept the loss of their loved one. They may also provide literature and host group support sessions.

Mortuaries and funeral homes must comply with state laws that govern their handling of deceased individuals. These laws cover everything from embalming to burial and cremation. They also address consumer protections like requirements for transparent pricing and written contracts.

Some states require that funeral directors and embalmers be licensed. Additionally, they must adhere to ethical standards that promote honesty and professionalism. They must also respect the wishes of deceased individuals and their families and avoid exploitative practices. This requires a careful balance of legal and moral obligations.

Meeting Legal Requirements

Mortuary law is a unique area of legal practice that involves the regulations and practices surrounding the handling, burial, cremation, and disposal of human remains. This specialized field of law focuses on the rights of families and their loved ones while also considering the health concerns and public safety issues.

This includes laws that address embalming, funeral homes, cemeteries, and crematories. It is crucial for mortuary professionals to understand and comply with these laws in order to serve their clients and the community well.

For example, the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule requires funeral providers to give consumers a General Price List (GPL) that they can keep. This GPL must include a basic services fee that covers overhead costs. It must be offered to anyone who asks about funeral goods and services or prices, including those making pre-need arrangements.

Engaging with the Community

Mortuaries serve a vital role in assisting families who are dealing with grief. They also provide education and support to the community on end-of-life issues, funeral arrangements and more. They also offer a variety of services that allow people to remember loved ones in their own unique way.

The terms morgue, mortuary and crematorium are often used interchangeably, which might explain why there’s some confusion around what these locations do. In addition to their core functions, many mortuaries offer viewing and funeral services and have on-site cremation facilities.

To help connect with local communities, mortuaries can host cemetery tours and other events at their facilities. They can also get involved with community outreach activities such as sponsoring a local charity run or participating in a cultural celebration.

You probably won’t get ghosted for using the words graveyard and cemetery interchangeably, but it might be confusing to those who aren’t familiar with the distinction. The big clue is that a cemetery is usually unattached to a church.

It is also typically larger in size and can allow both followers of the religion and non-followers to be buried there.

Churchyards

Churchyards are picture-postcards of our past and provide rich archaeological resources for study, but they can also be difficult to manage. There can be a tension between the interests of archaeologically-led DAC investigations and respect for the mission of churches, which is primarily aimed at people living in the present.

Traditionally churchyards contained burial ground and the church precincts, and were the most ancient enclosed land in a parish or town. Many had stoups where holy water could be collected by those about to enter the church; and some had porch altars where marriage contracts were signed.

In recent years churchyards have seen a rise in visitors, often to research their family history. Encourage visitors to record the wildlife they see on iNaturalist – it’s simple and rewarding.

Cemeteries

With more than 100 cemeteries in the five boroughs, and plenty of room still left to go, NYC’s dead speak volumes to those who visit their resting places. The contracts and by laws of a cemetery association can make for daunting reading, especially when it comes to the rights of burial sites.

Generally speaking, a cemetery is specifically designed and maintained for the interment of bodies. It’s not just a patch of land that happened to be available beside a church. Ongoing costs for a cemetery include labor for gravediggers and landscapers, property taxes, utilities, water and irrigation, and non-labor security expenses. Some cemetery fees also cover maintenance of the monuments. Other ongoing costs are associated with the operation of a funeral home and the sale of caskets and cremation services.

Burials

The burial of the dead may involve various rituals, according to culture. It may also be influenced by sanitary and practical considerations, including the desire to prevent unpleasant smells resulting from decomposition. In addition, some cultures believe that a body that is buried in a certain place will be transported to a different location when the time comes for resurrection.

Often, the dead are buried in a grave marked with a memorial headstone. This usually displays a name and date of death. In some societies, people with a high social status are buried in an individual crypt under their place of worship.

In some cases, a known person is buried anonymously in order to avoid desecration or the possibility of grave robbing or vandalism. This can be especially true of historical figures.

Monuments

Monuments include headstones and grave markers, as well as statues or carvings. In general, they honor the dead and double as informational artifacts for descendants to research.

Headstones can feature a family name, dates of birth and death, or symbols of religion and culture. Some religious symbols (like angels, crosses, cherub heads and gates) or memento mori (“symbolic reminders of death”) also have meanings that can provide further context to the deceased.

Gravestones can be carved from many materials, and the design options are virtually unlimited. Foot marker-style monuments are often the least expensive, but are more easily damaged during mowing and other cemetery work. Restoration is a highly specialized job for monumental masons and involves careful structural investigations of the stones. See our technical guidance for more.

Maintenance

Although most cemeteries provide mowing and other general landscape maintenance, individual gravesites often fall to family members for maintenance. They may need to remove withered flowers or weeds, trim grass around the tomb, and clean the stone. They also need to ensure that the gravesite is free of salts, which can cause damage.

These efforts create space for the growth of native plant species, which increase carbon sequestration and reduce NO2 emissions. They also create a habitat for wildlife and encourage visitors to the cemetery.

Some people like to decorate their loved one’s grave or memorial site with flowers, mementos, and other items. These can be very meaningful, but they must be carefully placed. Moreover, they must comply with local regulations on cemetery decorations.