Comments by "SepherStar" (@SepherStar) on "Funeral home markups and upselling: Hidden camera investigation (CBC Marketplace)" video.

  1. Where I am, the body is turned over to the county coroner and the coroner will cremate the body and hold the cremains for up to two years, during which time the family can claim the cremains for a few hundred dollars...something like $200 to $500. If the family does not do this, the cremains are eventually buried in a mass grave. A memorial is usually held at the grave site and the county keeps a list of the names of the individuals in the grave but I do not believe they are listed on the grave marker as there are usually many of them.
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  2. That's actually very poetic.
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  3. Some jurisdictions require refrigeration after 24 hours.
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  4. I don't think they are scams. I just think they are often over priced.
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  5. Cremation isn't free because it costs money to build the crematorium, and it costs money to staff it and fuel the incinerators. They have to burn at very high temperatures to sufficiently cremate the body and ensure that no particulates are released into the atmosphere. All of the soft tissue is vaporized into CO, CO2 and water vapor. What's left are the bone fragments which are further ground into a powder after the cremation. So you are not actually receiving ashes back, but bone powder.
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