those brave enough to study the corpses had to withstand the strong odors emitted from decomposition without preservatives (Ghosh, 2015). Anatomical embalming helps Funeral home embalming process Overall, anatomical embalming today differs greatly from embalming for funerals in a number of ways, as shown by comparing overviews of each process. In funeral homes, embalmers preserve the deceased with a more cosmetic intent for the family to view the decedent as they remember them in life. Goals of funeral home embalming, beyond sanitary preservation, include restoring a more lifelike and natural color and texture to the skin, as well as setting facial features before preservation to more realistically mimic a resting state. Grooming hair and applying clothing after preservation as close to the decedents’ preference in life— as evident of photographs of them before death supplied by their families—also helps families accept their loved one’s death more readily. In the preservation process, traditional embalmers in funeral homes inject moderate amounts of fluid arterially when possible for these cases, generally following the formula of 16 ounces of embalming fluid concentrate mixed with water into a gallon solution per every 50 pounds of the decedent’s weight before the embalming process. After arterial injection, a long metal instrument called a trocar pierces organs and vacuums or aspirates remaining fluids from the decedent’s organs, puncturing anatomy inside to fully expose and eliminate any remaining blood and waste still contained in the thoracic (chest and stomach) cavities before reusing the trocar for injection instead of aspiration. The purpose of removing these fluids is to prevent rapid decomposition, which oxygenated blood and bacteria within waste encourage. The funeral home embalmer then uses the oldest method of embalming fluid injection, the gravity method, to add a higher-concentration cavity fluid via the trocar to finish preserving the organs themselves. This method distributes the fluid to all parts of the decedent’s cavity exposed by the aspiration process by holding the bottle of cavity fluid above the body and allowing gravity to inject the fluid as opposed to an embalming machine that acts like a heart pumping preservative arterially instead of blood. After sealing the puncture used for aspiration and cavity fluid injection, usually with a trocar button, the embalmer begins the postpreservation process of preparing the Anatomical embalming process Anatomical embalming excels as a practical career choice for embalmers seeking work in today’s death care industry where their skills are less needed by funeral homes and families prefer receiving the ashes of their loved ones instead of the caskets, vaults, and land needed for them. Donating a body to a willed body program where anatomical embalming takes place also benefits families not only in terms of cost but also in terms of needing to make a plethora of crucial decisions regarding what happens to the body of a loved one amidst the grieving process, as with a funeral home. Upon donation of a body to a willed body program for preservation and further scientific study, it is the institution’s responsibility to determine the decedent’s best use for education. This choice is made after careful consideration and evaluation of the condition of the body throughout life, past illnesses or surgeries that students may find useful, and the needs of educational courses offered to advanced medical students at the time of use of the cadaver. Because of this, anatomical embalming costs little to nothing for
preserve bodies for study for years after death regardless of the season.
decedent for presentation in a lifelike state of rest for family and friends to view before burial. The embalmer dresses the decedent in clothes selected and brought by the family before using a lift or the assistance of funeral home staff to place the decedent in a casket the family has chosen in the arrangement conference. The funeral home embalmer then carefully applies special mortuary cosmetics, which are different from cosmetics for the living. Mortuary cosmetics are designed to react to room temperatures and the stiffer consistencies of the embalmed deceased, as opposed to body temperature and the greater pliability of a living person’s face with which most cosmetics purchased over the counter are designed to react to. For visitation and the funeral service itself, the embalmed deceased person remains above ground in the casket only long enough for the family to meet and mourn the loss of their loved one before the decedent’s burial. Not long after, the casket is sealed in its vault, when one is purchased by the family, and the effects of the preservative fluid eventually wear off before the body’s decomposition resumes to a natural rate. This process costs families hundreds to thousands of dollars in exchange for the value of closure in the grief process, having seen and actualized the death in physical form. The varying costs benefit the family in that regard and profit the funeral home as well as the cemetery where the decedent is interred. But the societal benefit beyond essential grief resolution for the family is generally limited only to sanitization. No sustainable education stems from the embalming of a loved one in a traditional funeral home’s care. The main benefit of choosing traditional embalming through a funeral home is the family’s choice and offers absolute knowledge of what happens to their loved one’s body after death. But this same benefit can be reached through cremation services offered through most funeral homes at a substantially lower cost. This has resulted in the rapid decline of families choosing to embalm their loved ones through a funeral home but decreasing apprenticeship and career opportunities for embalmers in today’s mortuary field. families, depending on the body donation program of the medical institution receiving and processing the body of the deceased. The institution receiving the decedent for donation takes care of everything for the family only after rights are signed over by a next of kin representative from the family. This exchange of paperwork—usually online via email or where facilities still exist to support fax—saves the family from having to meet with any caretakers to make any major decisions or purchases as in a funeral home arrangement conference. Terminology referring to the decedent transforms at this point to donor before use, as the decedent has willed their body to an institution of scientific study, and cadaver after use, as the decedent’s body has been applied to the education of practitioners of medicine, surgery, and public safety. Organs are examined for donation to the living in the hospital when the death takes place before the willed body program retrieves the body, as relevant in the state of Texas. For study and tracking, anonymity immediately ensues upon the institution’s receipt of the donor. Each receives its
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