Friday, August 3, 1973 THE SUMMER DAILY Page Nine Cremation causes grave situation SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With the cost of a funeral with ceme- tery plot and headstone averag- ing about $1,700 nationally, a growing number of Americans are signing up for cremations for as little as $250. They would rather use the dif- ference - about $1,450 - to bring their mortgages up to date or help their grandchildren through college, say the business- men who offer this "minimum service." BUT DON'T JUMP to the con- clusion, they say, that people who sign up in advance for their own low-cost cremations are poor people. The fact is, they say, most are from the affluent mid- dle class and have about - aver- age educations. The trend does not frighten the funeral industry, its spokesmen say. They characterize the inex- pensive cremations as nothing more than a "disposal service," which they say few Americans want. And in case someone does, they say a conventional mortuary can supply the need as cheaply or cheaper. Nevertheless, the industry lob- bied in the California Legisla- ture last year for a bill that the director of a cremation service said would hamper if not kill his business. THE MORTUARY spokesmen said they were concerned mainly with public health, and believe that any handling of human bod- ies should be regulated the same way they are. The bill died in committee. The cremation service that fought the bill was the Telophase Society of San 1iego, whose founder and director, Thomas Weber, says it is unique in the nation. Weber won his point with the legislature by saying the fun- eral industry "IS TRYING TO BURY US." But another simi- lar bill was introduced in this year's session and scheduled for a committee hearing Aug. . ALSO THIS session, a San Die- go legislator introduced a "truth- in-funerals" bill requiring the itemization in advance of all funeral costs, and a bill which would not permit changes in the funeral arrangements that a de- cedent makes himself in ad- vance. Both bills were killed in committee. Weber says Telophase signs up individuals for $25 - senior citizens $15 - and waits for telephone calls reporting their deaths. A 24-hour crew picks up the bodies in a station wagon and turns them over to an indepen- dent licensed cemeterian for cremation at rented facilities and disposal of ashes at sea. An office staff handles the pa- per work. The survivors are bill- ed- a flat $250, which is $5 less than the death benefits paid un- der Social Security. WHILE TELOPHASE i t s e 1 f sees to the disposal, there are 11 funeral and memorial societies in California - and 130 national- ly - which operate differently. The funeral and memorial so- cieties enroll families for a flat $10 fee, then place them in con- tact with regular funeral homes with which they can contract for cremation at similar low prices. Once the member has contacted the mortuary, the role of funeral or memorial society ends. The main difference, Weber says, is that with Telophase the survivors cannot change the ar- rangements, but with funeral and memorial societies, the survivors can go to the funeral home, where renegotiation for added services such as embalming - with added costs - is always possible. WEBER, A Ph.D. in biochem- istry, says he believes the de- ceased should have the final word. "Everyone I talk to says, 'When I die. I want the simplest thing possible,"' Weber said in, an interview. "You never hear anyone say, 'I want a $10,000 coffin and all the rest." He quoted a recent survey, by the Wharton School of Business as saying the national average cost of a funeral - including cemetery plot and headstone - was $1,690. DEATH IS A normal conse- quence of life, says Weber. He often uses the word "thanatolo- gy," defined as "the descrip- tion or study of the phenomena of somatic - bodily - death." He said thanatology courses are being offered in a growing num- ber of high schools and colleges. The title Telophase comes from the Greek - rooted term "telo phase," meaning the last stage of cellular division, Weber said. Despite the biological approach to handling physical remains, Weber said there is no reason why survivors cannot organize separate memorial or religious ceremonies, and many do. T E L O P H A S E started three years ago, signing up five members the first month and 20 the second. Membership is now more than 3,000 with 431 signing up in one recent month. Cremations were running one a month only a year and a half ago, but have since increased to about one per day. Weber said a survey of the first 2,000 members revealed that fewer than 10 per cent were hard-pressed financiay. WHILE MOST listed "cost" as the chief reason for signing up, Weber said "surprisingly, they are more affluent than the norm. Many live in La Jolla," an upper-middle class city in San Diego County. "In 'education, they are about 2.2 years higher than the norm." "By religion, about 15 per cent are Roman Catholic," Weber Jive to normal funeral, on which they say Americans spend $3 billion to $3.5 billion a year. "ONLY ABOUT five per cent of the dead are cremated in the United States," Williams said, "and this has grown only about one per cent in the last 10 years." "What they're offering is just a disposal service," Williams said. "You can't qualify that as a funeral service. "They don't offer embalming or religious services, It's just not the right way to do it. It's a completely pagan method of dis- posing of remains." WILLIAMS SAID, "It's not necessary for the public to turn to these pagans for the simple want of funds. I don't know of any funeral home in California that will turn them down. Hun- dreds of people are buried every year at no cost at all." He said mortuaries sometimes lit s just not the right way to do it. It's a completely pagan method of disposing of remains." -George Williams, mortician said. "There is a high percent- handle funerals for as little as age of Jews. Protestants are well $150. In San Diego alone, he said, distributed, although we have there are four mortuaries that fewer of the fundamentalist type would provide the same service denominations." as Telophase "for the same cost Similar findings are reported or less." by the vice president of the Cali- "To each his own," Williams fornia Federation of Funeral and said of the ways a person may Memorial Societies, E. A. Peson- wish to have his remains treated. en of Sacramento. WHATEVER YOU WANT," he AS PESONEN and Weber see it, added, "you'll find a funeral di- they are offering the first alterna- rector who will go along SGC is looking for a DIRECTOR OF STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS. This is a non-salaried posi- tion which entails sitting on the Student Or- ganizations Board, acting as advocate, trouble- shooter and problem solver for various groups, reviewing applications for regitration, etc. All applicants must be students. The time commit ment is about 20 hours per week. This is a wide-open position and offers a good deal of potential for creativity and organizational in- novation. For further information call 764- 0207 or 764-0436. Interviews will be happen- ing shortly. Up on the roof Millionaire Stewart Mott shows off some of the vegetables he has grown in his penthouse garden. All it takes is sunshine, loving care and lots of money. 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