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MCC issues action alert opposing bill that would allow human composting

The Maryland Statehouse

The Maryland Catholic Conference has issued an action alert voicing its opposition to a law being considered by the Maryland State Senate that would legalize turning human remains into compost.

The measure – to be considered by state senators on March 29 – would authorize Maryland’s State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors to license and regulate “cremations that reduce human remains to soil through natural organic reduction.”

“Natural organic reduction (NOR) was developed to prevent the spread of disease through livestock carcasses,” the MCC said in its action alert. “Now, the Maryland Senate is considering legislation that would allow the process to be used to turn deceased people into a disposable commodity, a soil mix developed through a complex and multi-month process that involves mixing items such as mulch, bacteria and fungi, and breaking down bones, in warehouse-type facilities.”

A similar measure passed in the state House of Delegates earlier this month. At the time, the MCC said it opposes NOR because it “uses essentially the same process as a home gardening composting system: rotating the remains, maintain controlled temperatures and adding accelerating chemicals to speed up the breakdown of the body of the deceased.”

The MCC action alert was issued the same week that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine released a March 20 statement saying NOR and similar newer methods and technologies of treating human remains “fail to manifest the respect for last remains that Catholic faith requires.”

The bishops – in their statement titled “On the Proper Disposition of Bodily Remains” – stressed that the Church has an “overarching concern that due respect be shown to the bodily remains of the deceased in a way that gives visible witness to our faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.” It said that NOR and a similar method known as alkaline hydrolysis do not show such respect.

The bishops pointed out that “after the alkaline hydrolysis process, there are about 100 gallons of liquid into which the greater part of the body has been dissolved and this liquid is treated as wastewater. At the end of the human composting process, the body has completely decomposed along with accompanying plant matter to yield a single mass of compost, with nothing distinguishably left of the body to be laid to rest in a sacred place.”

Their statement also said the end result of the human composting process is “disconcerting” because “what is left (of the body) is approximately a cubic yard of compost that one is invited to spread on a lawn or in a garden or in some wilderness location.”

That issue was also raised by the MCC. In its testimony earlier this month, the MCC noted that “dispersing the remains in public locations, without an advisory to members of the public, risks people treading over human remains without their knowledge... A simple burial or cremation, for instance, maintains the dignity of the deceased while avoiding the potential of the public not being aware of the presence of human remains.”

The MCC also noted that human composting, which costs between $5,000 to $7,000, violates Catholic teaching on the dignity of the human body as pointed out in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2016 instruction, “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” regarding burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation.

The MCC is the public policy arm of the two Catholic archdioceses and one diocese that encompass the state – the Archdiocese of Baltimore; The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which includes five Maryland counties surrounding the nation’s capital; and the Diocese of Wilmington, which includes counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The Catholic Advocacy Network helps parishioners learn about the issues and provides an opportunity for constituents to be heard by their legislators, and last year, Maryland Catholics sent nearly 70,000 emails to lawmakers. Parishioners can join the Catholic Advocacy Network at mdcatholic.org/joincan; or texting MDCATHOLIC to 52886.

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