These days, DIY is all the rage. From home wedding Pintrest pages to YouTube tutorials about tiny homes, the information age has empowered us to roll up our sleeves and get our hands messy. Besides being able to put your own creative spin on the project, doing things yourself also saves big bucks. Conventional funerals, on the other hand, tend to be cookie-cutter and expensive. Maybe it is not so surprising that many hardcore do-it-yourselfers want to bring the funeral and burial back home. But can you just pick up a shovel and bury grandma in the backyard next to the herb garden? Turns out, the question is might be yes with a heavy sprinkling of legal and practical asterisks.
THE FAMILY THAT BURIES TOGETHER STAYS TOGETHER
Once upon a time, home funerals and home burials were called funerals and burials.
Everyone cared for their own after death, from washing and dressing the body to digging the grave. Funeral homes only became the ‘default’ choice in the early 20th century with the rise of embalming. Since the colonial period, townsfolk and villagers used municipal burial grounds or churchyards to bury their dead but rural farms had their own family plots on family land.
SAVINGS AND SENTIMENTS
The modern movement towards home funerals offers families more options in terms of access to the body, personalized rituals, and cost savings. The average American funeral costs around $9,000, with many services costing much more. A funeral home is ultimately a private business which restricts the family’s access to the body to scheduled appointments and viewing hours. Many families are uncomfortable with handing off their loved one to strangers and are seeing the benefits of caring for one’s own at home.
While keeping a body at home may strike some as strange, it is legal in all 50 states to hold a home funeral. In some states, a funeral director must be involved, be it to file the death certificate or to help with the burial or cremation. A few other states have specific requirements about preserving the body with embalming or refrigeration after 24 or 48 hours. Embalming is almost never required by law except in specific circumstances, and ‘refrigeration’ can comprise using dry ice or regular ice packs and cranking the AC. If the home funeral is going to last a few days, this is probably good practical advice, anyway.
HOME SWEET GRAVE
But what if you never want your loved one leave home, ever again? Is home burial legal? The simple answer is that, according to state laws, the answer is yes unless you live in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Louisiana, or Washington state. None of the other 45 state have laws that prohibit home burial, but private property owners are beholden to local zoning laws and town ordinances that can be tricky. Your odds are better if you live in a rural or semi-rural location, away from sources of drinking water and other property lines but this is no guarantee the dead will rest in peace.
A TALE OF TWO BODIES
Jim Davis, husband to the late Patsy Davis, went to battle with the local and state authorities to keep her grave in his front yard in Alabama. Although the Davis home was in a rural location and he had gotten clearance from the health department, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against him. Four years after her death, Patsy Davis was disinterred and cremated at a local funeral home.
Far north in New Hampshire, the family of Nathaniel Roe had no difficulty in laying him to rest in a plain pine coffin on their family’s farmland. The whole family took part in preparing the 92-year-old patriarch for burial and selected a spot beside his favorite walking trail for his grave. The entire affair cost $250.
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, BURN ‘EM
A fairly simple workaround to the legal issues may be cremation. Cremated remains are not as heavily regulated as whole bodies since they are inert, inoffensive, and smaller in volume. If you want to scatter cremated remains on your own private property there really isn’t any way of enforcing a law against it or stopping you. If you bury cremated remains, use a non-biodegradable container if you want to move it with you if you sell the property.
*RESULTS MAY VARY
The long and short of the legality of home burials is ‘results may vary.’ But home funerals are gaining traction as a safe, practical, and meaningful alternative to the funeral industry model. Resources such as the National Home Funeral Alliance, the Order of the Good Death, and the Funeral Consumers Alliance offer guidance and recommendations for those wishing to plan a home funeral for themselves or a loved one.
REFERENCES
Gates, Verna. “Alabama man loses battle to keep wife buried in front yard.” Reuters.com 15 November 2013. Web.
Kaleem, Jaweed. “Home funerals grow as Americans skip the mortician for do-it-yourself after-death care.” Huffington Post (38) (2013).
Irving, Shae. “Home Funeral Laws: An Overview.” Nolo, n.d. Web.
Lee, Jae Rhim. “Burial Laws by State.” Coeio.com. 18 July 2016. Web.
Zezima, Katie. “Home Burials Offer an Intimate Alternative.” The New York Times (2009).
Playing Marbles for Keeps 
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