Choosing Your Exit: Cremation vs Burial

 

Death is a messy business. It's a business that some dedicate their livelihoods to dealing with.

Morticians strive to make the passing of a loved one a seamless process, even if it is a difficult one. However, it's important to understand the cremation vs burial pros and cons to make a final decision.

When making a decision for someone else, it's best to respect their wishes as much as possible. But for those considering their own future, these are the points to consider.

Cremation vs Burial Pros and Cons

It's important to note that for both processes, utmost care is taken to respect the remains. Both methods offer opportunities for viewings, services, and the like.

Cremation

It's easy to think of cremation as being a modern invention but it's been around a long long time. While some cultures are well known for taking steps to preserve remains, others were more concerned with ideas of releasing the spirit.

Even so, like more traditional burial, cremation methods have kept up with the times offering alternatives in technique and energy consumption.

Pros

The cost of cremation vs burial is the easiest pro. A cremation costs as little as one-third of a burial.

Cremations provide remains that surviving family can split up as they want. Remains can also be converted into jewelry or even start boxes for trees.

A cremation service is easier to plan and bring people together. Dealing with the initial remains doesn't need to fit a tight timeframe. Ship or transport ashes and create satellite services.

Cons

Cremation isn't without its impacts. The energy needed to consume a body is intense. Crematoriums also invest in high-end filters to keep toxic heavy metals, particularly mercury, from being pumped into the atmosphere from fillings and the like.

Burial

For some, burial is the only option. Religions such as Jewish Orthodoxy and Islam don't allow for cremations.

Burial options include gravestones or markers in a public cemetery, a private plot, or a vaulted mausoleum.

Pros

Most people have an idea of what a burial service looks like and that includes viewings and an internment ceremony. These options also exist for cremation but often in an altered form.  Not seeing a loved one a final time is difficult.

A specific resting place makes a visit to the memory a special occasion. Burials also allow for an area to be planned and upgraded over time.

Ecologically, cremation vs green burial comes out on the side of burial for ecological harmony.

Cons

The biggest con with burial is the space it takes up. For years, articles expressing this concern paint a bleak picture of this coming day.

Outside of cremation costs vs traditional burial costs for the remains themselves, there is the travel and planning to consider. For a burial, you need everyone to gather at a specific place.

Services also need to be scheduled and compete with inclement weather.

Consider it

Planning ahead is the best way to make certain that the weight of the cremation vs burial pros and cons comes out how you want.

For any given pro, there is a con to think about. For each con, there is mitigation to look into. Consider your options and discuss them with family.

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