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The Death Care Industry: A Review of Regulatory and Consumer Issues
Abstract
Although virtually every person in the United States will purchase or consume a funeral-related product or service, relatively little is understood about the processes a consumer undertakes in making these expensive decisions in stressful circumstances. Regulation of the industry has been contentious from the outset, and there have been numerous questions as to regulatory effectiveness. This article outlines and discusses issues related to the death care industry with particular attention to consumer interests.
... The inevitable purchase of funeral products is necessitated by the responsibility for surviving members to dispose the remains of their loved ones (Beard & Burger, 2017a;Katan et al., 2019;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). However, funeral products are consumed under stressful situations, when an immediate need exists during a state of bereavement (Coetzee et al., 2014). ...
... Thus, it implies that past purchase behaviour does not only precede or follow intentions, but it also serves as a moderating variable. This study also complements past studies that have concentrated on the spending behaviour of consumers of funeral products (Beard & Burger, 2017a;Jack et al., 2020;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). ...
... Additionally, the term 'traditional' is often utilized in the modern funeral industry to encourage consumers to spend more money on a funeral service, and to justify the increase of services provided by the funeral home. Yet, there is nothing 'traditional' about a profit-driven funeral industry that charges exorbitant fees to manage our deceased loved ones; in fact, funerals are one of the largest expenses a person will incur in a lifetime (Kopp & Kemp, 2007). In Ontario, Canada, for instance, journalists have reported that some community members have described aggressive funeral sales practices that target recently bereaved individuals; that pre-paying for funerals is ineffective in avoiding expenses due to hidden fees; and caskets and urns are consistently subject to excessive price markups from wholesale price lists, ranging from 150% to 400% per item (Cribb et al., 2017). ...
... Beyond the difficulties of making an informed financial decision within a raw state of grief, many individuals have a lack of experience regarding funerals due to the isolated nature of death within contemporary Western societies (Aries, 1980). Many grieving persons utilize few sources of information to make informed choices for the funeral service, as people are struggling to adjust to the complex process of navigating an entirely unfamiliar industry (Kopp & Kemp, 2007). What feels like an already impossible situation can be magnified by inadequate bereavement-related workplace laws to support time away from employment. ...
One less explored area of research concerns the response to the ecological crisis through environmentally sustainable death practices, which we broadly define in this paper as ‘green death practices’. In this paper, interdisciplinary research and scholarship are utilized to critically analyze death practices, and to demonstrate how contemporary Westernized death practices such as embalming, traditional burial, and cremation can have harmful environmental and public health implications. This paper also investigates the multi-billion-dollar funeral industry, and how death systems which place economic growth over human wellbeing can be socially exploitative, oppressive, and marginalizing towards recently bereaved persons and the environment. Death-care as corporatized care is explicitly questioned, and the paper provides a new social vision for death systems in industrialized Western societies. Ultimately, the paper advocates for how green death practices may offer new pathways for honoring our relationships to the planet, other human beings, and even our own deepest values.
... The inevitable purchase of funeral products is necessitated by the responsibility for surviving members to dispose the remains of their loved ones (Beard & Burger, 2017a;Katan et al., 2019;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). However, funeral products are consumed under stressful situations, when an immediate need exists during a state of bereavement (Coetzee et al., 2014). ...
... Thus, it implies that past purchase behaviour does not only precede or follow intentions, but it also serves as a moderating variable. This study also complements past studies that have concentrated on the spending behaviour of consumers of funeral products (Beard & Burger, 2017a;Jack et al., 2020;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). ...
The study departs from the norm by investigating how attitudes and subjective norms conceptualized through the aggregated and disaggregated approaches predict intentions to purchase funeral products, as well as how the effects differ between groups based on past purchase behaviour. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to a purposeful sample of 500 Christians in Gaborone, Botswana, of which 457 (i.e., 91%) were useful responses. The findings of the aggregated approach show that both attitudes and subjective norms significantly and positively affect purchase intentions of funeral products. The effects are more evident for those who have purchased funeral products before, while the purchase intentions of those who have not purchased funeral products are influenced by subjective norms only. However, the findings based on the disaggregated approach reflect that motivation to comply is the most dominant, significant and positive predictor of intentions to purchase funeral products. Further results indicate that the intentions of those who have purchased funeral products before were significantly and positively influenced by evaluations, normative beliefs and motivation to comply, while the intentions of non-purchasers were only influenced significantly and positively by their motivation to comply. Thus, motivation to comply serves as a significant and positive predictor of intentions regardless of past purchase behaviour. The results imply that various components of attitudes and subjective norms affect intentions differently, and variations do exist in the effects according to the groups’ past purchase behaviour. This study adopts a consumer behaviour perspective in offering insight into Christian burial rituals. By applying the Theory of Reasoned Action, the link between intentions and its predictors is investigated, which extends the literature about the purchase of funeral products beyond the study of spending behaviour. Its concentration on Christians in Botswana also provides a good starting point for highlighting the role of religiosity on the purchase of funeral products, while embracing an understudied society.
... Funeral practices vary between different countries, due to many factors, such as: culture, religion, demography, medicalization and migration (Walter, 2005(Walter, , 2012. These differences are noticeable in funeral rites but also in cremation charges, cemetery management and state regulations (Sloane, 1991;Goody & Poppi, 1994;Suzuki, 2000;Kopp & Kemp, 2007;Akyel, 2011;Rugg, 2015). ...
... The company had to not only revise its services but also develop means to provide the families with the support from friends, for example, despite the imposed limitations, considering social isolation. An alternative was to adopt technological resources using online funeral transmission, in addition to the space allocated to recording virtual messages, modernising the funeral business models debated by Sloane (1991); Kopp and Kemp (2007); Akyel (2011);and Rugg (2020). ...
The purpose of this article is to understand the actions and processes of change made in the logistics policy of a funeral home operating in Northeast Brazil to cope with the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper addresses an exploratory case study with a qualitative analytical approach, which used a semi-structured interview script to collect data from the operations manager of the company in question, videoconferenced in July 2020. The survey was designed in four stages: (1) construction of theoretical subsidies; (2) interview with the operations manager; (3) return to the interviewee to consolidate the
collected data; (4) analysis of the main changes occurring in the organisation’s logistics process during the pandemic. The results of the analysis helped conclude that the context of the public health crisis generated actions in and a need to re-adapt the firm’s
logistics policy for transport, procurement and inventory, in order to ensure continuity of the funeral services rendered, without detriment to the consumers of the funeral plans and new clients.
... Here, we demonstrate that funeral co-ops fight inequality on two fronts: by resisting corporate dominance in the funeral industry, and by diffusing and institutionalizing a model that helps correct inequalities in the industry. Research has shown that deathcare services can be a source of multiple inequalities (Sanders, 2009;Saunders, 1991), since the lack of knowledge and limited information about such a large expense during a dramatic life experience (Bailey, 2010;Kopp & Kemp, 2007) are frequently exploited by funeral businesses through abusive prices, particularly affecting low-income clients (Drakeford, 1998). Despite these elements, insufficient attention has been given to funerals as an inequality issue (Valentine & Woodthorpe, 2014), and to the role of the co-op model in disrupting this inequality through resisting traditional corporate dominance (Smith, 2007;St-Onge, 2001;Tessier, 2008). ...
... However, contemporary deathcare's high profits come from increased expenses for the grieving (Fan & Zick, 2004). Consumers are encouraged to spend more on funerals to demonstrate their love for the deceased (Saunders, 1991), and funeralsaugmented by increasingly ostentatious high-priced services (Lynch, 1999; are now among the most expensive purchases many consumers will ever make (Kopp & Kemp, 2007). With time, funerals have become capitalist endeavours giving 'the appearance of the exploitation of someone's loss and subsequent grief' (Sanders, 2009, p. 448). ...
This paper examines how alternative economic organizations can fight inequality without help from traditional partners such as social movement organizations. We focus on co-operatives’ successful battle against corporate dominance in the Québec funeral industry. We analyse their actions through the lens of Nancy Fraser’s tridimensional theory of justice, which utilizes the cultural dimension of recognition, political dimension of representation, and economic dimension of distribution. We demonstrate how funeral co-ops empowered their federation to influence institutional inequality while maintaining a co-op identity by embodying the potentially contradictory flexibility of social movements along with co-op principles. This paper contributes to scholarship on collective social action by exploring the dual role of model and movement played by secondary co-ops such as the federation of Québec funeral co-ops, which draws on local institutional and organizational resources to disrupt unfair structures. We also extend Fraser’s theory, using it as a framework for understanding the dynamic relationships between inequality and its potential remedies at different levels of analysis.
... Given the financial outlay involved in purchasing death care products (Fan and Zick 2004) and the cultural and psychological significance of the funeral ritual (Kastenbaum 2000), consumers should presumably engage in more planning for the purchase of these product offerings. However, surveys consistently report that a majority of consumers do not take steps to make plans for end of life (AARP 2008;Carrese et al. 2002;Kopp and Kemp 2007a;Schrader, Nelson, and Eidsness 2009;Wirthlin Group 2005). Death is not a reality savored by most people in Western culture (Aries 1981), and it would seem that few prepare for its inevitability. ...
... End-of-life decision making and funeral planning can involve complex psychological processes (Kopp and Kemp 2007b). From a theoretical perspective, attitudes toward death are intricate and can involve both fear and acceptance (Frankl 1965(Frankl , 1990Langs 1997). ...
Several organizations have made efforts in their marketing communications to encourage consumers to make decisions about death care and other end-of-life alternatives before these services are needed. The purpose of this research is to compare persuasive communication strategies derived from the approach—avoidance conflict model to encourage end-of-life planning behavior. This research addresses the psychological resistance consumers may have toward planning, including factors that may impede message processing. Results provide evidence that planning may be influenced by the use of specific messages that reduce resistance and perceptions of invulnerability. The authors conclude with implications for social marketing programs that encourage end-of-life planning.
... It is the objective of the present article to assess key questions of nutrition labeling on pre-packaged food products as part of an effort to both illustrate and evaluate consumer and regulatory issues in this sector (cf. Kopp and Kemp 2007). In analyzing the findings of these research questions, the article provides suggestions for how to advance this stream of research in order to inform managers and policymakers of relevant findings and implications. ...
... With a complex topic like consumer behavior, there may be limits to the extent of control that regulatory authorities can exert in order to "regulate" the relationship(s) between the consumer and the market. Similar to findings of a review of regulatory and consumer issues in the death care industry (Kopp and Kemp 2007), one can state that although regulation of nutrition labeling was intended to increase consumer protection, changes in the marketplace, as well as in consumption trends, have led to a different landscape in which existing directives are less helpful than originally intended in protecting and guiding the consumer. ...
A comprehensive overview and critique of the nutrition labeling literature is provided. Studies examining the design and features of label formats and their impact on consumers being better informed and engaging in healthier behaviors are examined to summarize available knowledge in the field. The review suggests that while the extant literature has provided worthwhile critiques of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act in terms of meeting its stated goals, as well as other general insights, it allows only for very tentative and conditional statements about factors related to the “bottom line” effectiveness of nutritional labeling. The outcome of the review suggests that a more holistic view of nutritional labeling is needed. Suggestions for future research that focus on both conceptualizations of the studies as well as methodology are made.
... Few industry price surveys are available. Also, regional variation in prices can be substantial (Fan and Zick 2004) with urban areas generally exhibiting higher prices than rural areas (Kopp and Kemp 2007). Location within a cemetery and nearby amenities may also affect price (Llewelyn 1998). ...
... For-profit corporations are beginning to alter the landscape. Consolidation and vertical integration are increasing with some cemeteries bundling cemetery, mortuary , and other funeral related services under the same roof (Kopp and Kemp 2007; AARP 2000; Llewelyn 1998). 17 Some private cemeteries have expanded their services to include flower shops, monument sales, aftercare (e.g., grief counseling and support), genealogical research services, and annual calendars of special events that feature tours, concerts, and workshops. ...
This report evaluates the burial needs of Virginia\'s veterans. It describes the locations and capacities of cemeteries that serve veterans who reside in Virginia, evaluates the need for additional burial capacity, identifies an optimal location for a new state cemetery, and examines the issues to consider in procuring additional property for cemetery expansion. It also investigates the role of cost and marketing/outreach efforts in shaping veteran burial choices and the potential effect of expanding interment eligibility to out-of-state residents.
... Extant research on the funeral industry as unsought services and unwanted services focused on the functionality and emotions of doing business (e.g., Sheng et al., 2019), strategies of marketing and planning (e.g., Armour & Williams, 1981), and legal marketing regulations (e.g., Kopp & Kemp, 2007). These studies, however, did not attempt to explore the needed and acceptable nature of the funeral industry in society. ...
This study explores the positive nature of the funeral industry in rural communities and examines how rural funeral directors perform community services to destigmatize their profession. Analysis of interviews (n = 27) with rural funeral directors revealed that the funeral industry, although it is associated with death and dying, was needed and accepted in the community – a phenomenon the article labels (un)wanted and (un)sought services. This construct challenges the denial of death thesis and supports the contingent and discursive nature of death and dying. Moreover, rural funeral directors offer life enrichment programs, support local businesses, work as partial civic servants, and participate in community governance. This study argues that these supportive performances reflect the communicative mechanism of destigmatization, reinforcing the needed and acceptable nature and diminishing the unwanted and unsought nature of the profession. Lastly, the study advocates that urban funeral homes learn from rural funeral homes regarding communal characteristics to make a more supportive and cohesive urban life.
... Moreover, given their symbolic and sociological weight, funerals are highly normative social contexts that must take into account the entourage's role in decision-making, from the production to the consumption of the funeral service. In fact, some studies highlight the important emotional and informational role the bereaved families' entourages play in their mourning (Aoun et al., 2019a;Kopp & Kemp, 2007;Rumbold et al., 2019). To date, this influence has not yet been studied in depth, particularly with regard to how it affects the decision-making process for purchasing funeral services. ...
The role played by emotions in funeral services, as in unwanted services in general, is still largely unexplored in the literature. While no theoretical attempt has been made yet to shed light on the dyadic and processual emotional relationship occurring in a service of this nature, a narrative literature review has been conducted from a multidisciplinary corpus. The analysis is designed to present both sides of this relationship, e.g., the perspective of the consumer as well as that of the service provider. Research avenues are developed to deepen the understanding of emotions in the consumer-organizational relationship specific to funeral services.
... Scholars have noted that there is little research on death, funerals, and consumption mainly because of the taboo associations to death in western cultures (Arndt et al., 2004;Bonsu & Belk, 2003). Funerals are consequently considered an uncomfortable consumer decision (Dobscha & Podoshen, 2017;Kemp & Kopp, 2010;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). ...
Funeral rituals perform important social functions for families and communities, but little is known about the motives of people planning funerals. Using mixed methods, we examine funeral planning as end‐of‐life relational spending. We identify how relational motives drive and manifest in funeral planning, even when the primary recipient of goods and services is dead. Qualitative interviews with consumers who had planned pre‐COVID funerals (N=15) reveal a caring orientation drives funeral decision‐making for loved ones and for self‐planned funerals. Caring practices manifest in three forms: (a) balancing preferences between the planner, deceased, and surviving family, (b) making personal sacrifices, and (c) spending amount (Study 1). Archival funeral contract data (N=385) reveals supporting quantitative evidence of caring‐driven funeral spending. Planners spend more on funerals for others and underspend on their own funerals (Study 2). Pre‐registered experiments (N=1,906) addressing selection bias replicate these results and find generalization across different funding sources (planner‐funded, other‐funded, and insurance; Studies 3A‐3C). The findings elucidate a ubiquitous, emotional, and financially consequential decision process at the end of life.
... McManus and Schafer (2014) investigated the complex process underlying bereaved persons' funeral expenditure, and its relationship with personal reactions (there was no quantification of specific psycho-social consequences). Kopp and Kemp (2007) examined the processes a consumer undertakes in making expensive decisions in stressful circumstances such as bereavement. Fan and Zick (2004) looked into the economic burden of funerals and burial expenses. ...
Funeral services are known to serve multiple functions for bereaved persons. There is also a common, intuitively reasonable assumption of positive associations between engaging in funeral activities and adjustment to bereavement. We examined whether restricting ceremonial cremation arrangements to a minimum has a negative association with grief over time. Bereaved persons in the United Kingdom completed questionnaires 2 to 5 months postloss and again a year later ( N = 233 with complete data; dropout = 11.4%). Neither type nor elaborateness of the cremation service, nor satisfaction with arrangements (typically high), emerged as significantly related to grief; no major subgroup differences (e.g., according to income level) were found. Results suggested that it does not matter to grief whether a more minimalistic or elaborate funeral ceremony was observed. We concluded that the funeral industry represented in this investigation is offering bereaved people the range of choices regarding cremation arrangements to meet their needs. Limits to generalizability are discussed.
... Consumer preferences within the death care industry are constantly evolving (Beard & Burger, 2017;Kopp & Kemp, 2007). Consumer behavior involves searching for, purchasing, using, and evaluating products or services (Schiffman, O'Cass, Paladino, D'Alessandro, & Bednall, 2011). ...
Although considerable research efforts have focused on bereavement outcomes following loss, there are few studies which address the role of memorialization, particularly as it relates to formal service provision. Currently the funeral, cemetery, and crematorium industries are observing a steady decline in traditional and formal memorialization practices. This study aims to identify current memorialization practices and emerging trends, highlight key priorities for improving service outcomes for the bereaved, and understand the implications of changing consumer preferences for service provision. The study’s qualitative research design incorporates two phases, a scoping literature review followed by in-depth interviews with eight service providers from the funeral, cemetery, and crematorium industries. A key finding is that the trend toward contemporary and informal memorialization practices blurs the lines between the role of consumers and service providers. There is a clear opportunity for service providers to engage in community education as a means of building supportive relationships with and improving service outcomes for the bereaved.
... The extant marketing literature on EOL products focuses primarily on five research areas. One area relates to evaluating industry regulations and consumer protection for EOL products (e.g., Kopp & Kemp, 2007a, 2007bQuilliam, 2008aQuilliam, , 2008b. A second area examines costs and financial, as well as, psychological, burdens incurred from purchasing EOL products/services (e.g., Banks, 1998;Fan & Zick, 2004;McManus & Schafer, 2014). ...
Death is inevitable; yet, not all consumers prepare for death by purchasing end‐of‐life (EOL) products. Using the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the dual‐process model framework, this study aims to examine the role of emotions and cognitions in influencing consumers' decisions to engage in planning for death. A mixed methodology design was used. Study 1, a qualitative study, uncovered positive and negative emotions and deliberative reasoning that comprise consumers' EOL purchase decision process. Study 2, a quantitative study, confirmed that emotions and deliberations independently and jointly influenced consumers' EOL attitude and behavior and that emotions affected deliberations for both prepaid funerals and wills. Subjective norms outperformed attitude in predicting both products' purchase behavior. These finding supported the dual‐process model of behavior and the TRA in the EOL research context and contributed to the EOL literature by investigating the effects of emotions and deliberations concurrently; thus validating the important role of emotions in influencing EOL planning and purchase. In light of our findings, marketers could, after due cognizance of the morbidity and sensitivity of the topic, develop actionable promotional and segmentation strategies for EOL products and other emotion‐laden, unsought products and service.
... After the community recites prayers, the body is then transported to the cemetery for burial. Generally, communities in the United States do not allow for direct burial without a casket (Kopp and Kemp 2007), and thus, in the United States, Muslims will purchase a simple, non-ornamental box, sometimes, ironically, from Orthodox Jewish suppliers of death goods. Because both Jews and Muslims choose to forgo embalmment, caskets are closed and simple, and made of biodegradable materials. ...
Choosing to have a body embalmed, the choice of interment locations and type, including the selection of a particular casket, are all deeply intertwined with various understandings of the afterlife, and views of the body after death. Consumer choices in these cases are often determined by imagined embodiment, and are determined in part by non-rational consumer choices based on religious upbringing and belief. In turn, diasporic and religious identity can be reinforced and solidified through consumer choices that then fulfill religious imaginations of post-death embodiment. This article traces the relationship of two consumer death goods—embalming and caskets—in the contemporary United States, examining both the implicit and explicit relationships these products have with religious worldviews, mapping the social impact of religious beliefs on consumer death choices.
... Wedding and funeral decisions are subject to numerous social and cultural expectations (Bonsu & Belk, 2003; Laderman, 2003; Mead, 2007; Ratner & Kahn, 2002; Richins, 1994). Consumers seem especially vulnerable to sales and marketing tactics used by the wedding and death care industries (Boden, 2003; Fan & Zick, 2004; Kopp & Kemp, 2007a, 2007b Mead, 2007; Mitford, 1998). Wedding consumers, for instance, receive substantially higher price quotes for products and services (e.g., cakes, photographers) than for identically-described products and services for a birthday (Browne, 2009). ...
We examine financial challenges of purchasing items that are readily-available yet symbolic of loving relationships. Using weddings and funerals as case studies, we find that people indirectly pay to avoid taboo monetary trade-offs. When purchasing items symbolic of love, respondents chose higher price, higher quality items over equally appealing lower price, lower quality items (Study 1), searched less for lower priced items (Study 2) and were less willing to negotiate prices (Study 3). The effect was present for experienced consumers (Study 1), affectively positive and negative events (Study 2), and more routine purchase events (Study 3). Trade-off avoidance, however, was limited to monetary trade-offs associated with loved ones. When either money or love was omitted from the decision context, people were more likely to engage in trade-off reasoning. By abandoning cost-benefit reasoning in order to avoid painful monetary trade-offs, people spend more money than if they engaged in trade-off based behaviors, such as seeking lower cost options or requesting lower prices. © 2016, Society for Judgment and Decision making. All rights reserved.
... In addition to an econometric analysis, the article explores the impact of advertising on consumers and the motives of business in advertising, providing evidence that restricting or banning soft drink advertising would not have an impact on primary demand for soft drinks. Kopp and Kemp (2007) also provide a holistic view of marketing and advertising regulation in the death care industry, analyzing both consumer and business concerns, as well as the existing regulatory framework. ...
With a focus on advertising, the most visible and publicly criticized marketing activity, issues that impel advertising regulation and self-regulation themselves often generate headlines in the popular press as well as business magazines. Beyond the basic longtime concerns of advertising veracity, or accusations of its inherent dishonesty, advertising regulation often becomes the advocated solution for problems of public health, privacy invasions, excessive consumer debt, and public aesthetics, as well as social critics' desires to diminish the modern cultural trait of secular consumerism (i.e., "excessive shopping"). The problem is that actual research on the issues requires more than responding to the headlines. The model for understanding the existing literature of advertising and public policy research presented by Rotfeld and Stafford (2007) provides pragmatic guidelines for conducting quality research that is informed by and possibly guides advertising regulation and self-regulation decisions. The resulting inherently interesting future publications would be interdisciplinary, pandisciplinary, and multidisciplinary, but also needing discipline.
... Sometimes consumers are abused by the unequal power situations. Federal Trade Commission rules on funeral industry practices aim to assist consumers who are forced to make expensive decisions in times when they would not be thinking clearly (Kopp and Kemp 2007). And yet even when people possess knowledge and information, they ignore it, do not use it, or respond to the wrong cues of what might be the correct decision (e.g., Belsky and Gilovich 1999;Lwin and Williams 2006;Norberg, Horne, and Horne 2007). ...
A thriving, yet small, liberal component in Israeli society has frequently taken issue with the constraints imposed by religious orthodoxy, largely with limited success. However, Guy Ben-Porat suggests, in recent years, in part because of demographic changes and in part because of the influence of an increasingly consumer-oriented society, dramatic changes have occurred in secularization of significant parts of public and private lives. Even though these fissures often have more to do with lifestyle choices and economics than with political or religious ideology, the demands and choices of a secular public and a burgeoning religious presence in the government are becoming ever more difficult to reconcile. The evidence, which the author has accrued from numerous interviews and a detailed survey, is nowhere more telling than in areas that demand religious sanction such as marriage, burial, the sale of pork, and the operation of businesses on the Sabbath.
Bazen bir hüzün bazen ise bir mutluluk olarak algılanan ölüm en genel anlamıyla yaşamın son bulması olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Toplumların ölümü algılama şekilleri farklı olduğu için ölen bireye yüklenen anlamlar ritüeller olarak gelişmeye başlamıştır. Bu ritüeller bireylerin acılarını hafifletmelerinde, duygularını dışa vurmalarında ve ölülerle iç içe olmalarında önemlidir. Ölüme ve yas sürecine ilişkin yapılan ritüellerin bireylerin kültürel inanışlarına göre şekillendiği görülmektedir. Ölüm ve yas ritüellerinin doğasında var olan inançların şekillenmesinde "ölüm endüstrisi" adı verilen faaliyetler etkili olmuştur. Ölüm endüstrisi toplumun isteklerine göre, cenaze hizmetleri, palyatif bakım hizmetleri, ölüm süreci bakımı, ötenazi ve ölüm turizmi gibi sağlık hizmetleri sunmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı ölüm ve yasa dair ritüelleri kavramsal çerçevede incelemektir. Teorik nitelikli bu çalışmada, ölüm ve yas ritüelleri hakkında genel bilgilere yer verilmiş ve bu bilgiler ülkelere has ritüel örneklerinden oluşan literatür bilgileriyle desteklenmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda, ritüellerin tüm toplumlarda ve kültürlerde farklılaştığı ancak hepsinde ortak noktanın acılarını hafifletmek olduğu görülmektedir. Ritüeller geçmiş zamanlardan günümüze kadar uygulanmaya çalışılmış ancak koşulların değişmesiyle ritüeller de zayıflamıştır. Ritüellerin zayıflamasında kapitalizm ve ölümün kurumsal alanda gerçekleşmesi gibi nedenler etkilidir. Kısaca ölüm ve yas ritüellerinin zamanla kapitalizmin etkisi altına girerek, yaşam sonrasında yapılan faaliyetlerin de belli bir endüstri tarafından yürütüldüğü sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. ABSTRACT Death, which is sometimes perceived as a sadness and sometimes as a happiness, is defined as the end of life in the most general sense. Since societies have different ways of perceiving death, the meanings attributed to the deceased have begun to develop as rituals. These rituals are important for individuals to alleviate their suffering, to express their emotions and to be intertwined with the dead. It is seen that the rituals related to death and the mourning process are shaped according to the cultural beliefs of the individuals. Activities called "death industry" have been effective in shaping the beliefs inherent in death and mourning rituals. The death industry provides health services such as funeral services, palliative care services, death process care, euthanasia and death tourism, according to the wishes of the society. The aim of this study is to examine the rituals of death and law in a conceptual framework. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine death and mourning rituals within the framework of health services. In this theoretical study, general information about death and mourning rituals is given and this information is supported by literature information consisting of ritual examples specific to countries. As a result of the study, it is seen that rituals differ in all societies and cultures, but the common point in all of them is to alleviate their pain. Rituals have been tried to be practiced from past times to the present, but the rituals have weakened with the change of conditions. Reasons such as capitalism and the fact that death occurs in the institutional area are effective in weakening the rituals. In short, it was concluded that death and mourning rituals came under the influence of capitalism over time, and the activities carried out after life were carried out by a certain industry.
Death and Digital Media provides a critical overview of how people mourn, commemorate and interact with the dead through digital media. It maps the historical and shifting landscape of digital death, considering a wide range of social, commercial and institutional responses to technological innovations. The authors examine multiple digital platforms and offer a series of case studies drawn from North America, Europe and Australia. The book delivers fresh insight and analysis from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and media studies. It is key reading for students and scholars in these disciplines, as well as for professionals working in bereavement support capacities.
Portrayals of death in advertising for non-death related products are exceedingly rare, in sharp contrast to numerous death portrayals in other media sources such as movies and TV programs. Additionally, advertising increasingly depicts other controversial topics, such as sex and violence, but not death. Is death the last taboo in advertising? This qualitative study uses a grounded theory approach to explore death as a taboo topic in advertising through in-depth interviews with twenty consumers—purposively chosen so that half of the participants were aged in their 20 s and half were older than 65. Participants were shown six current, non-shocking ads containing death portrayals to understand how consumers think and feel about death portrayals in advertising. Differences in consumer interpretations based on age emerged. In addition, ad execution factors that helped consumers accept death portrayals included the use of humor, non-human characters, unrealistic situations, and evocative music.
This paper discusses a history of funeral infrastructure development in Russia from the end of nineteenth century to the present day. Following Tony Walter’s approach to the diversity of the corpse management systems, the authors state that the Russian case does not fit any of the models suggested by Walter. Authors trace changes in Russian funeral management over the past century to show that the peculiarity of contemporary funeral culture has its roots in Soviet ideology and command economy with a specific frame of infrastructure (dys)functionality. The paper is based both on archival materials on Soviet funeral management and an ethnographic study, conducted in eight regions of Russia from 2016 to 2018.
Utilizing the bioarchaeology of care model, this research formulates a model of care based on ethnohistorical and skeletal markers of pathologic conditions. The index of care is the method used to create models of care, and this requires social, cultural, economic, environmental, and mortuary contexts to determine the resources required to aid a person through injury or disability. This paper investigates the impact of known medical, occupational, and morgue records that accompanied each selected individual in the skeletal collection. This additional information, beyond what is gained from skeletal analysis, generates a complex model of care. A more complex model of care can better estimate cost of care, length of care, and resource requirements and availability. Information provided by the records allows for a better understanding of the individual’s life and care received. Such learnings can better inform on how individuals of the past understood and treated people with disabilities or impairment. Utilizing the pathologic lesions on the skeletal remains, coupled with the associated individual records, eight individuals were selected from The Terry Collection, currently housed at the Smithsonian Institution. Completed models of care for each individual are examined to evaluate the impact of written documentation on the finished model. Additionally, this paper investigates whether the documentation provided informs on the financial cost of care in addition to social cost or length of care. Studying multiple models of care built around individuals from different time periods can illuminate how caregiving has evolved to modern-day standards.
Tony Walter once presented his own models to describe the differences between the national institutional models of the burial industry. He combined two approaches - infrastructure and regulatory. He revealed a correlation between the state regulation of funeral infrastructure and institutional models. There are three ideal models (highlighted based upon who the respective infrastructure belongs to): state, church, private, as well as variations of a mixed model. However, Walter's models relate only to the experience of Western Europe and the United States. The author of this article attempts to address this omission. The author tries to incorporate the experience of Russia's modern burial industry into Walter's typology. This article has several objectives. First of all, to introduce Russian readers to the context of burial industry development. Such information has not yet been published in Russian. Secondly, presenting attempts to interpret the differences in the formation of national funeral service markets using Walter's model. Third, trying to expose the serious limitations of the proposed model when attempting to apply it to the situation in Russia. The author argues that the Soviet model can be described as an institutional autonomy which came to be within the context of rural traditional cultural development. Modern Russia has inherited that old institutional model and enforces it under federal law, delegating all activities to the local authorities, who use government infrastructure to generate profit, while restricting access to such services for consumers. Therefore, state funeral infrastructure has led not to the emergence and development of private companies which provide burial services, but has rather relegated the private sector to becoming an intermediary. Tony Walter's models, working within the regulatory context, were loosely applied to the case of the Russian burial industry.
Purpose
The research involved a funeral home manager who used case research within another funeral home to learn more about how to manage his own workplace. This research aims to investigate for the first time how funeral homes can strategically manage the marketing of their services to customers during emotional times in their lives.
Design/methodology/approach
The two methodologies of convergent interviewing and case research in a funeral home workplace are described in detail.
Findings
The case research revealed what strategic marketing management principles have to be emphasized in the unique context of funeral homes, and the related need to develop a hybrid strategy. The project demonstrated that a case research project can align a formal research project with the professional development of managers.
Practical implications
The paper provided the first author with a valuable learning experience of management in his industry, and provides other funeral home managers with a detailed guide to doing their strategic marketing management.
Originality/value
The authors’ contributions are the first example of case research used for workplace learning in a blend of formal academic research and workplace learning. It is also the first academically rigorous coverage of strategic marketing management workplace practices in the unique context of funeral homes; they were uncovered in interviews across a range of staff levels in a funeral home.
As advertising regulation entered a phase of effective and strong government focus four decades ago, many studies published in business journals responded with consumer research inspired by those regulations. After businesses organizations established or increased their own self-regulatory activities, business faculties around the globe for the most part overlooked it or simply presumed it would rank as a "strong" force in consumer protection. Into this void, Jean J. Boddewyn provided comprehensive studies of advertising regulation and self-regulation that conceptualized, described, and analyzed these activities in the legal and cultural contexts of many countries starting in 1979.
Consumer protection advocates and resulting government regulation of the death care industry tend to focus on the most obvious problems, those caused by deceptive sales practices of funeral service providers. However, a spotlight on the funeral’s large expenses overshadows the myriad of other consumption activities that heirs must undertake. Survivors must navigate confusing complex situations for which they are unprepared, at a time when grief increases their vulnerability.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how retail organizations serve heirs attempting to settle estates, suggesting that companies providing minimal customer service risk driving away future business, while those companies that seek solutions to ease the estate settlement process can acquire new customer relationships from heirs and beneficiaries.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides examples of companies that adhere to strict rules, minimal service, or emphasis on cost reduction, comparing them to companies with more flexible and compassionate approaches to estate settlement.
Findings
An approach to customer service centered on meeting customer needs can enhance an organization's reputation. By contrast, those reliant on rigid policies risk losing long‐term business opportunities.
Practical implications
Companies can gain new customer relationships by improving the way they handle estate claims and provide service to executors, administrators, heirs, and beneficiaries. Financial services companies in particular stand to acquire new customer relationships from the forecasted large generational wealth transfer.
Originality/value
The paper provides guidance for improving customer service when settling estates, and argues that companies that do not seek positive ways to ease the difficulties in dealing with financial matters at death ignore the basic directives of a marketing perspective.
The results from a consumer survey that examined consumer knowledge of some parameters of the Funeral Rule are presented. Currently, all funeral home activities are regulated under the Funeral Industry Practices Rule of the Federal Trade Commission. The rule is premised on the assumption that it is difficult for consumers to make careful, informed purchase decisions in at-need situations because of emotional stress, time pressure, and lack of familiarity with available goods and services. However, limited research has assessed how much consumers know about the legal obligations of funeral providers as provided for by the Funeral Rule. Implications for consumer protection and policy are discussed.
Thirty-nine states currently have ready-to-embalm laws, which typically require that all firms selling any type of funeral service (even those specializing in cremations) have embalming preparation rooms and all funeral directors be trained as embalmers. Ready-to-embalm laws are designed to preserve the status-quo in funeral markets, thereby protecting currently licensed funeral directors from the ravages of competition. These laws attempt to preserve funeral markets as they existed in the mid-twentieth century, markets that centered on traditional funerals sold by small, full-service funeral homes. The economic chemicals needed to preserve the status quo are harsh, leading to higher funeral prices and often poorer-quality services. The empirical evidence suggests that these laws reduce the cremation rate, the market share of Internet casket retailers, the penetration of national chains, and the number of funeral directors who are immigrants. They also appear to substantially increase the retail price of direct cremations and the cost of traditional funerals. Commissions in several states have recently recommended repealing ready-to-embalm laws, arguing that they are anticompetitive. The evidence presented in this paper should make their recommendations harder to ignore.
When do consumers complain? This study probes this question by developing a conceptual framework that includes multiple theoretical
perspectives, empirically testing a portion of the proposed model, and using dissatisfaction/complaint data from three different
service industries. The hypothesized model uses multidimensional consumer complaint response estimates including voice, private,
and third-party responses as dependent variables. Results support several proposed relationships, provide a high level of
explained variance, and indicate a moderating role for dissatisfaction intensity. The complaint response estimates are characterized
by disparate influence pathways, and expectancy value judgments emerge as critical determinants with positive and negative
crossover effects. Attitude toward complaining is more dominant under low dissatisfaction intensity than it is under the high
dissatisfaction condition. Important differences emerge across service categories. Implications of this work for managers
and researchers in understanding when consumers complain are enumerated.
Research suggests that widows and wodowers experience substantial economic vulnerability. Using nationally representative data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys 1980–2000, we describe pre-widowhood shifts in medical and funeral/burial expenditures and discuss how these changes may affect post-widowhood economic well-being. Our analyses suggest that funeral/burial and medical expenditures, when combined, typically constitute a 63.1% income share for recently widowed households. Discussion focuses on what role consumer educators can play in helping families better manage end-of-life expenditures.
Purpose
In the USA, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) has adopted a final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act's Regulation Z, effective October 1, 2001. The present study aims to use the elaboration likelihood model to explore how consumers might respond to the revised credit card disclosure requirements, focusing specifically on college students.
Design/methodology/approach
Each subject was randomly assigned to one of two financial scenarios and asked to choose, among competing offers, the credit card that presented the “best” match to the scenario. Subsequently, all subjects completed measures designed to test hypothesized relationships within the framework of the elaboration likelihood model.
Findings
College students possess a fairly low level of knowledge of credit cards and thus are not very well equipped to make educated choices concerning such cards.
Research limitations/implications
The use of a rural student sample is a limitation and future research should investigate different populations, including those in urban and international markets.
Practical implications
Since the variable APR information appears to distract consumers from taking into account other important cost information, credit card issuers should develop solicitations that aid consumers in making knowledgeable choices.
Originality/value
The present research is the first to investigate the impact of the FRB's recently adopted final rule amending the Truth in Lending Act's Regulation Z. The findings should thus be of interest to regulators, credit card issuers, and consumer advocates.
Ads of stocks and mutual funds typically tout their past performance, despite a disclosure that past performance does not guarantee future returns. Are consumers motivated to buy or sell based on past performance of assets? More generally, do consumers (wrongly) use sequential information about past performance of assets to make suboptimal decisions? Use of this heuristic leads to two well-known biases: the hot hand and the gambler's fallacy. This study proposes a theory of hype that integrates these two biases; that a positive run could inflate prices, while a negative run could depress them, although the pattern could reverse on extended runs. Tests on two experiments and one event study of stock purchases strongly suggest that consumers dump "losers" and buy "winners." The latter phenomenon could lead to hyped-up prices on the stock market for winning stocks. The authors discuss the managerial, public policy, and research implications of the results.
Preliminary measures of pre-purchase uncertainty were developed through focus group interviews and were administered to a nationwide sample of recent appliance purchasers. Responses indicated the presence of two general types of uncertainty: knowledge uncertainty (uncertainty regarding information about alternatives) and choice uncertainty (uncertainty about which alternative to choose). In exploring how each of these uncertainty dimensions was related to search behavior, we found that choice uncertainty appeared to increase search, but knowledge uncertainty had a weaker, negative effect on search. Implications of the findings for previous research on the relationship between uncertainty and search are discussed, along with research directions.
Although bundling, the selling of two or more products and/or services at a single price, has a history of economic research, marketing-oriented investigations have appeared only recently. This paper examines buyers’ perceptions of overall savings when they evaluate a bundle offer. Such perceptions of overall bundle savings may consist of two separate perceptions of savings, each with a different relative influence: (1) perceived savings on the individual items if purchased separately and (2) perceived additional savings on the bundle. Results of an experiment indicate that additional savings offered directly on the bundle have a greater relative impact on buyers’ perceptions of transaction value than savings offered on the bundle's individual items. The effect of each saving is also influenced by the magnitude of the other saving.
Durable goods buyers’ prepurchase information search activities were studied to determine whether distinctive patterns of information source usage could be identified. A method based on canonical analysis of retail, neutral, and personal source usage measures in conjunction with selected explanatory variables proved useful in distinguishing four different patterns. Tradeoffs were evident in the usage of and reliance on different information sources. The results emphasize the need for further study of consumer information need and information-gathering abilities.
A model of grocery shopper response to price and other point-of-purchase information was developed and hypotheses were tested by using observations and interviews. The findings suggest that shoppers tended to spend only a short time making their selection and many did not check the price of the item they selected. Perhaps as a consequence, more than half could not correctly name the price of the item just placed in the shopping cart and more than half of the shoppers who purchased an item that was on special were unaware that the price was reduced. Other results on point-of-purchase information processing and behavior are discussed.
Although bundling, the selling of two or more products and/or services at a single price, has a history of economic research, marketing-oriented investigations have appeared only recently. This paper examines buyers' perceptions of overall savings when they evaluate a bundle offer. Such perceptions of overall bundle savings may consist of two separate perceptions of savings, each with a different relative influence: (1) perceived savings on the individual items if purchased separately and (2) perceived additional savings on the bundle. Results of an experiment indicate that additional savings offered directly on the bundle have a greater relative impact on buyers' perceptions of transaction value than savings offered on the bundle's individual items. The effect of each saving is also influenced by the magnitude of the other saving.
This study examines the perception of the risk of death among New Englanders in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century America and compares it with the actual risk of death using the life table concepts developed by demographers. Emphasis is on the relationship between actual and perceived risks of death. The authors conclude that although the actual risk of death changed radically over time as the mortality transition evolved the perceptions of Puritan ministers and others of the individual mortality risk did not. The demographic implication of this failure to understand the significance of this change in mortality is discussed and some modern parallels concerning the gap between perceived and actual risk of death are noted.
In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing.
Recent misconduct has turned the national spotlight on the crematory industry, prompting many legislators to reevaluate state and federal laws governing the industry. Lawmakers have been forced to acknowledge that regulatory gaps exist, which leave the general public inadequately protected from potential wrongdoing. This oversight is particularly harmful to the elderly, who are more frequently subject to exploitative practices within the industry. In this note, Keith E. Horton examines the existing federal and state regulations that govern the industry, including the proposed Federal Death Care Inspection and Disclosure Act. Mr. Horton also examines the crematory industry's self-regulation through death care industry associations that generate standards of conduct. He proposes increased regulation and oversight, recommending that Congress substantially adopt the proposed Act. In addition, Mr. Horton suggests that states promulgate laws with more severe punishments to deter misconduct. He also encourages families to take practical, proactive steps to avoid potential misconduct or mishaps during the cremation process. These added safeguards are necessary, Mr. Horton advises, to ensure that consumers are adequately protected.
A model of grocery shopper response to price and other point-of-purchase information was developed and hypotheses were tested by using observations and interviews. The findings suggest that shoppers tended to spend only a short time making their selection and many did not check the price of the item they selected. Perhaps as a consequence, more than half could not correctly name the price of the item just placed in the shopping cart and more than half of the shoppers who purchased an item that was on special were unaware that the price was reduced. Other results on point-of-purchase information processing and behavior are discussed.
Durable goods buyers' prepurchase information search activities were studied to determine whether distinctive patterns of information source usage could be identified. A method based on canonical analysis of retail, neutral, and personal source usage measures in conjunction with selected explanatory variables proved useful in distinguishing four different patterns. Tradeoffs were evident in the usage of and reliance on different information sources. The results emphasize the need for further study of consumer information need and information-gathering abilities.
Building on theoretical and empirical foundations in the consumer complaint behavior (CCB) literature, this study investigates outcomes and responsibilities for consumer complaints made to a governmental third-party organization. Using a content analysis of complaints made against insurance salespeople and companies, the present study explores the factors that lead to third-party complaints, including an analysis of specific practices and roles involved in sales and marketing strategy and implementation. In contrast to much of the research in CCB, this study examines actual complaint documentation, considers perspectives of each participant in the dispute, and assigns responsibility for the complaint situation. The results of this study suggest that the strategies developed by organizations, not salesperson practices, create the largest share of third-party complaints. This study provides impetus for marketers to reconsider the design of sales and marketing strategies and the role of salespeople and organizations in complaint situations.
Self-control is a promising concept for consumer research, and self-control failure may be an important cause of impulsive purchasing. Three causes of self-control failure are described. First, conflicting goals and standards undermine control, such as when the goal of feeling better immediately conflicts with the goal of saving money. Second, failure to keep track of (monitor) one's own behavior renders control difficult. Third, self-control depends on a resource that operates like strength or energy, and depletion of this resource makes self-control less effective. Trait differences in self-control predict many behaviors. Implications for theory and research in consumer behavior are discussed.
Most prior research on bundling from a consumer perspective has focused on how bundles are processed, particularly from a
prospect theory or mental accounting perspective. In contrast, relatively little research has examined the factors that might
drive consumer preference for bundles versus individual items. This article addresses one such factor: the potential to reduce
search and assembly costs. Through exploratory interviews and two laboratory experiments, the authors show that preference
for a bundle is greater when bundle choice will reduce search effort than when it will not, particularly among consumers who
are less motivated to process information.
The death of a loved one causes a deterioration in decision-making skills at a time when new decision roles may be required and financial resources suddenly constricted or increased. The authors investigate this phenomenon by studying grievers’ interfaces with the marketplace to uncover how rituals help grievers cope with their desire to avoid decision making. The authors interview survivors and persons who interact with grievers on a regular basis. Although most of the transactions discussed were ethical and honest, there were some cases of insensitivity and overcharging or mischarging. The authors note that underlying the post-death transactions was the grievers’ desire to withdraw from them, which indicates their reduced awareness of what transpired during the transactions. They conclude with recommendations for service providers and an appeal for broadened legislation.
First published in 1962, this book alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides. The outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring became a runaway bestseller, with international reverberations ... Even if she had not inspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one of the greatest nature writers in American letters" (Peter Matthiessen, for Time's "100 Most Influential People of the Century"). This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates the author's watershed book with new essays by the author and scientist Edward O. Wilson and the acclaimed biographer Linda Lear, who tells the story of Carson's courageous defense of her truths in the face of ruthless assault from the chemical industry in 1963, the year following the publication of Silent Spring and before her untimely death in 1964.
The results from a consumer survey that examined consumer knowledge of some parameters of the Funeral Rule are presented. Currently, all funeral home activities are regulated under the Funeral Industry Practices Rule of the Federal Trade Commission. The rule is premised on the assumption that it is difficult for consumers to make careful, informed purchase decisions in at-need situations because of emotional stress, time pressure, and lack of familiarity with available goods and services. However, limited research has assessed how much consumers know about the legal obligations of funeral providers as provided for by the Funeral Rule. Implications for consumer protection and policy are discussed.
When customer familiarity increases, customer expertise is likely to increase. Although expertise is known to affect information processing in several ways, few studies have examined the effects of familiarity on customers' evaluations and behavioral intentions. In this study, it was found that a high level of prepurchase familiarity was associated with more extreme (i.e., more polarized) postpurchase responses in customer satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and word-of-mouth intentions compared to a low prepurchase level of familiarity. More specifically, when service performance was high, high-familiarity customers expressed a higher level of satisfaction and behavioral intentions than did less familiar customers. On the other hand, when performance was low, high-familiarity customers expressed lower levels of satisfaction and behavioral intentions than did low-familiarity customers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Manuscript. Thesis (Baccalaureate)--University of Oregon, 1917. Includes bibliographical references.
This article presents evidence that state funeral regulations affect the choice of whether to cremate or bury dead bodies. States that require either funeral directors to be embalmers or funeral homes to have embalming preparation rooms have lower cremation rates, holding other factors such as income, age, educational attainment, nativity, religious adherence, race, and region constant. These embalming regulations reduce cremation rates by roughly 16 percent, which increases the amount spent on funerals by 2.6 percent. The article also presents evidence that funeral directors induce consumers to choose burial over cremation, which supports one of the fundamental premises underlying the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule. However, the additional evidence that inducement is more prevalent in states with stringent funeral regulations suggests that repealing state regulations that impede competition might be more effective than the Funeral Rule in attacking the problem of demand inducement. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.
A time-vs.-distance equation describing world-record performances may be used to compare the relative endurance capabilities of various groups of people.
Operator of Georgia Crematory is Indicted Patterns of Information Source Usage Among Durable Goods Buyers
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Unsafe at Any Speed New York: Grossman. National Center for Health Statistics Wash-ington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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The History of American Funeral Directing. Milwaukee, WI: National Funeral Director's Association
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Can You Afford to Die?
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Characteristics of Consumers Who Seek Third Party Redress. Consumer Interests Annual
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Attitudes Toward Death and Funerals IL: Center for Marketing Sciences, J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University A Content Analysis of Outcomes and Responsibilities for Consumer Complaints to Third-Party Organizations
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Caring for the Death: Your Final Act of Love. Hinesburg, VT: Upper Access. ———. 1999. Comments of the Funeral and Memorial Societies of America on the Commission's Review of the Funeral Rule
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Big Government’s Needless Interventions
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Preneed Funeral Plans: The Case for Uniformity
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Scam Alert.Surprise Ending
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Burial Plots: Cemetery Abuses Mean Your Loved Ones May Not Be Resting Where You Think
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