What will be done with your body when you die? For most people, the answer to this question involves your wishes, a death certificate, and a cemetery. It may also involve embalming.

Your Wishes

North Carolina statutes provide several methods for insuring that your wishes for disposition of your body are followed. These include your will, durable power of attorney for health care (preferred), or a pre-need contract for funeral or cremation services, among others. A burial includes multiple decisions, such as the following:

• donation of body, organs or tissues or eyes (immediate action)
• how the body is to be handled and treated, including embalming
• mourning rituals to be followed, including
  • visitation or viewing if or as desired,
  • funeral or memorial services as desired

Clearly, it is less stressful when personal values are considered and alternatives are chosen before the physical and emotional demands of end-of-life situations are upon the individual and next of kin.

For more information and forms for use in directing how you or your body is to be treated in case of death or if you are unable to speak for yourself, see the NC Lifelinks. NC Lifelinks is the Advance Health Care Directive Registry, which is provided by the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State.

Death Certificates

A death certificate represents the state's official record of a person's death.

Embalming

The practice of embalming is often misunderstood. First, North Carolina law does not require embalming before burial or cremation, except for deaths from a very limited number of diseases or unless the body is to be shipped across some state lines. However, funeral directors may suggest it as a "standard" service. Second, embalming as currently practiced, only delays body decomposition. It is not a permanent preservation of the tissues. Third, each mortuary is free to require embalming and may wish to do so when a body is to be viewed before or at a funeral; this is not a medical requirement but it may help a business counter claims that someone was physically affected by viewing a body.

Cemeteries

Cemetery costs typically involve the following:

• purchase of space (plot or niche)
• charges for opening and closing a grave
• costs of markers and/or their installation
• plot or space maintenance (annual or perennial).

Cemetery contracts (including those made on a pre-need basis) may require purchase of some or all services from the Cemetery or its chosen vendors. In other words, you may not be able to shop for the vendor of your choice based on price or other considerations. While there may or may not be suitable reasons for such restrictions, you should be fully aware of their impact on costs when you make the first step toward signing any contract or agreement.