DIY Funerals (UK)

DIY Funerals (UK).

Under UK law - provided drains and mains services are not affected and commercial gain is not made - a body can be buried more or less anywhere. What's more, the services of undertakers are not mandatory. Families can decide to pick up their loved one in their own vehicle and inter them in their own way - with or without ceremony or religion.

While few mourners opt for a totally DIY funeral (collecting their dearly deceased from the morgue and digging the grave themselves in their own back yard) increasing numbers are choosing the cheaper and more environmentally-friendly alternatives to traditional farewells.

There are now numerous woodland burial and nature reserve burial grounds around the UK, each laying many people to rest each year, and these "green" cemeteries aim to provide people of all beliefs with a means to determine their own funerals.

Generally, people using these facilities will opt for biodegradable caskets, made from cardboard or wicker. Or they can choose to lay their loved one to rest in cotton or woollen shrouds - which as well as causing little or no pollution, cost a fraction of conventional wooden coffins.

Eco coffins arrive flat-packed in the mail, and instead of a headstone there is a memorial tree.

Nicholas Albery, one of the founders of the Natural Death Centre, says:
"If people want to bury a member of their family or a friend in their own back garden, there is nothing in law preventing them from doing so.

"If the person died in a hospital, they would have to contact the ward sister to get a release form, which would say that they, the family, are conducting the funeral arrangements. As a charity, we help people to do this if they encounter problems. At this stage, we would fax the hospital to remind them of the law in these matters."

Mr Albery says that families collecting a body from a morgue would have to ensure that their vehicle was big enough, and that they had a container or shroud to put the body in. "The law in this matter says that the body must be decently covered, not naked, so there isn't even a need for a coffin."

Although planning permission is not required to bury a body in one's garden (just a check on the level of the water table and the position of underground mains supplies), he is the first to admit that home burial can be less than ideal. "It can be upsetting for other members of the family and neighbours, and devalue the house," he says.

Instead, he advocates woodland burial, where unlike the local crematorium, grieving relatives do not wait in line for the service of their loved one to be next.

Further details from: The Natural Death Centre, 12a Blackstock Mews, Blackstock Road, London N4 2BT Tel (+44) 0871 288 2098; fax (+44) 0207 354 3831 (Int'l +44)