Cremation By Water Approved By Church: Aquamation

[cappie]

The world's first water cremation centre on the Gold Coast is offering a liquid alternative to cremation and burial, using a process it hopes will revolutionise the funeral industry - and the process has been approved by the Catholic Church.

Aquamation Industries' John Humphries says the service, at the Eco Memorial Park at Stapylton near Dreamworld, is currently the first of its kind, but he expects around 30 centres around Australia will offer the option within 12 months, reports AAP in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Aquamation is a more natural, ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to cremations and uses water instead of fire to return a body to nature, Mr Humphries said.

"And within a year we would expect you would be able to have this done anywhere in Australia."

The process, called alkaline hydrolysis, relies on the same natural forces by which which a dead animal is returned to nature in the bush, he said.

"So we've put this totally natural process into a stainless steel tube where the body is washed for about four hours; it's the same natural breakdown of tissue, just at a faster rate, and even the Catholic church has now approved it," he said.

Mr Humphries said the equipment he invented was based on an experimental unit in the US that uses extreme pressure and temperature to destroy the infectious remains of cattle with mad cow disease.

He said nature invented the process, and his company has "simply re-designed the equipment so the water breaks down the cells and brings the body back to the chemical component it's made up of, leaving only white chalky bones which are returned to the family in an urn, like ashes."

[url="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/a-watery-alternative-to-cremation-20100812-120ok.html"]http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/a-watery-alternative-to-cremation-20100812-120ok.html[/url]

[homeschoolmom]

Wow... that's a new one...

[Paddington]

I have nowhere to put the white chalky bones.

Maybe after the garge sale.

[dUSt]

This could become an excellent movie plot.

1. Man is killed by mysterious murdering school teacher
2. Man is water cremated and turned into white chalky bones
3. White chalky bones accidentally get turned into chalk
4. The murderous teacher end up buying the chalk
5. The teacher uses the chalk in class, and the chalk, despite the teacher's efforts, begins to write out the confession to the murders in front of the whole class

*insert dramatic piano sound here*

[LadyOfSorrows]

[quote name='dUSt' timestamp='1281919163' post='2157895']
This could become an excellent movie plot.

1. Man is killed by mysterious murdering school teacher
2. Man is water cremated and turned into white chalky bones
3. White chalky bones accidentally get turned into chalk
4. The murderous teacher end up buying the chalk
5. The teacher uses the chalk in class, and the chalk, despite the teacher's efforts, begins to write out the confession to the murders in front of the whole class

*insert dramatic piano sound here*
[/quote]


Indeed, indeed!!!

I do though think it would be strange to have grandma's bones on the counter than to have grandma's ashes...

[Nihil Obstat]

I like that plot. Low budget and psychologically oriented.

[jeffpugh]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' timestamp='1281919705' post='2157897']
I like that plot. Low budget and psychologically oriented.
[/quote]
Lawl. You would.

[CatherineM]

I plan to be cremated and have been concerned about the amount of natural gas it is going to take.

[Ed Normile]

Water Cremation, its odd that they use a word such as cremate which means to burn in its basic form to describe this process. This sounds pretty neat way to accomplish this though. I wonder how the catholic church approved this new technique so quickly, seems it took much longer for them to decide old fashioned cremation was okay, and this newly discovered, or newly refined process is already approved, seemingly coinciding with the announcement of the process. I was thinking of being put through a wood chipper and shot into the ocean, it would satisfy my want to go fishing only this time I would be the bait, I was waiting to hear if the church approved of this or not.

ed

[Nihil Obstat]

I want to be disposed of by wood chipper. Is that against the rules?