Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008

Process of human disposal is a tough sell

By Norma Love

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONCORD, N.H. --

Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest -- dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

The process, alkaline hydrolysis, was developed in this country 16 years ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300-degree heat and 60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers.

No funeral homes in the United States -- or anywhere else in the world, as far as the equipment manufacturer knows -- offer it. In fact, only two U.S. medical centers use it on human bodies, and only on cadavers donated for research.

But because of its environmental advantages, some in the funeral industry say it could someday rival burial and cremation.

"It's not often that a truly game-changing technology comes along in the funeral service," the newsletter Funeral Service Insider said in September. But "we might have gotten ahold of one."

Getting the public to accept a process that strikes some as ghastly may be the biggest challenge. Psychopaths and dictators have used acid or lye to torture or erase their victims. And legislation to make alkaline hydrolysis available to the public in New York state was branded "Hannibal Lecter's bill," in a play on the sponsor's name -- Sen. Kemp Hannon -- and the movie character's sadism.

Alkaline hydrolysis is legal in Minnesota and New Hampshire, where a Manchester funeral director is pushing to offer it. But he has yet to line up the necessary regulatory approvals, and some New Hampshire lawmakers want to repeal the little-noticed 2006 state law legalizing it.