Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Funeral director sues Harrisburg-based cremation service

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Funeral director sues Harrisburg-based cremation service

Written by DeadGirl
Monday, 16 August 2004
Associated Press GREENSBURG, Pa. - Two lawsuits filed against a cremation society contend that a funeral director from a licensed funeral home must be involved in cremations. Scottsdale funeral director Robert B. Ferguson Jr. filed a lawsuit in Westmoreland County court that contends the Harrisburg-based Cremation Society of Pennsylvania has illegally crossed the line into offering funeral-related services and is unfairly taking his customers. The Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association has filed a similar lawsuit against the same cremation service in Dauphin County court. Ferguson contends the cremation society offered funeral-related services such as body transportation, document preparation and counseling about memorial services. "There are a number of organizations, it appears, that are trying to step into the funeral directors' turf, in effect, and that's what this company has been doing," Ferguson's attorney, James Lederach, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a story in Sunday editions. "Funeral directors mediate bereavement and handle our dead, and that is a valuable service ... We haven't gotten to the point where people are willing to ship mother off to the Cremation Society of Pennsylvania in a brown wrapper." It's important for consumers to work with a licensed funeral director and a funeral home because there's more to the job than handling the body, said Patrick Lanigan, the spokesman for the Allegheny County Funeral Directors Association. "It's insurance to the consumer that things are done right and properly, because we have our licenses on the line," Lanigan said. Some of the complaints against the Cremation Society of Pennsylvania were based on old practices and the company no longer offers to arrange funeral or memorial services, said cremation society attorney Jordan Cunningham. After a July 2002 Commonwealth Court ruling, the cremation society stopped having sales agents arrange contracts and has a funeral director handle contracts, Cunningham said. Harrisburg funeral director Dale Auer opened the crematory in 1981 and still owns it, Cunningham said. But Auer no longer operates it because the state Board of Funeral Directors suspended his funeral license in January for three years because of his criminal conviction for tax fraud. Another funeral director operates the cremation society, but it is not a licensed funeral home, which is a subject of legal objections. Ferguson and the statewide association of funeral directors have filed complaints against the cremation society with the State Board of Funeral Directors, which is investigating the company's practices. About one in 11 Americans and about one in 23 Pennsylvanians were cremated in 1980. Today, nearly one in four Americans are cremated and the rate in Pennsylvania increased fivefold over the last two decades, according to the Cremation Association of North America. While the majority of people will still choose traditional burial, more consumers are choosing cremation because of cost, simplicity and concerns about the environment, said Cremation Association of North America Executive Director Jack Springer. http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/9409843.htm

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Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries