NWA EDITORIAL: Going au naturel

Why is returning to natural burial so bad?

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

-- Genesis 3:19 (NIV)

What’s the point?

A proposal for a cemetery allowing “green” burials should be treated like any other land use, not sidelined by unjustified fears.

For most of human history, burial of the dead has been a lot less complicated than we've made it today.

There's a movement of sorts across the country, for at least a segment of our population, to get back to those simpler times. For a host of reasons, the embalming, expensive caskets and heavy-duty concrete vaults just aren't attractive methods to everyone when their time on earth is done.

Enter so-called "green burials" in which the deceased's body is cleaned and shrouded, without the use of any chemical preservatives. The body goes into the ground, where the natural decomposition process literally returns it whence it came in short order.

It's not everyone's preference, but wouldn't it be nice for it to be a choice?

Jane-Ellen Ross and her husband, Mike, think so. They've proposed the Ozark Sanctuary Cemetery in the Nob Hill area of Washington County as a place where natural burials would be welcome, at least by them. Their neighbors? That's a different story.

The couple seeks a permit from Washington County's Quorum Court, but has met resistance. County Coroner Roger Morris has been asked to gather information from other states about the burial practice.

Neighbors say they're concerned about contamination of wells and springs and runoff toward Beaver Lake.

The National Funeral Directors Association recognizes consumer demand for green burial options will grow. Some Americans don't see the point of preserving their bodies with chemicals, caskets and vaults after their deaths. And while this may be new to Washington County, it's certainly not new.

Indeed, until the mid-1800s, it was just the way it was done. Embalming came into widespread use largely around the time of the Civil War. For whatever reason, people have grown used to it.

We're not saying the traditional funeral and burial processes are disappearing. Of course, they aren't. But it certainly can't be said the natural approach is the wrong approach.

In Washington County, the issue revolves around concerns not unlike any other development proposal. Neighbors worry about land uses that might disrupt enjoyment of their own property. Part of is undoubtedly the "not in my backyard" response planning boards and quorum courts often hear.

This isn't some cockamamie idea dreamed up by someone in the Ozark backwoods. Green cemeteries do exist around the country. Green burials do happen.

Does it make sense to fear a human body's return to the soil? How many animals die natural deaths in the Arkansas woods, their bodies left to either natural decomposition or as part of the food chain? Sooner or later, they become part of the earth we all live and die on.

As the Beaver Water District has noted, using the land near Beaver Lake for a green cemetery would have far smaller negative effects to water quality and the environment than other potential uses of the land.

Whatever parameters are set for a natural cemetery should be focused on making sure its operation -- like any other business -- doesn't unfairly and unnecessarily impose on other nearby landowners. But fear of natural burials as a practice? That just doesn't seem natural.

Commentary on 12/11/2019

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