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Sometimes Uncle Ferd feels like he wanna flush Granny down the drain...

‘Flameless cremation’ offers green option for body disposal
September 27, 2012 - Lye, water and heat dissolve human body into liquid that is flushed down a drain

Inside a windowless room behind a drab South Holland storefront that once housed an auto body shop sits a piece of equipment that looks like it could be part of a super-secret government project. A giant stainless steel cylinder gleams beneath fluorescent lights. A hatch ringed with steel bolts caps one end of the cylinder. The equipment emits a faint hiss. And there’s an odor in the room — almost medicinal and not unpleasant but hard to identify.

“It’s not a noxious odor, is it?” asks Ryan Cattoni, showing visitors a $200,000 alkaline hydrolysis machine, the centerpiece of his just-opened AquaGreen Dispositions LLC. Cattoni is believed to be the first funeral director in Illinois to offer “flameless cremation,” a process that uses lye, water and heat to dissolve a human body into a coffee-brown liquid and bone fragments in anywhere from five to eight hours. The liquid is then flushed down a drain. “I’m really passionate about this process,” says Cattoni. “It’s a much gentler cycle on the body — as funny as that may sound.”

Cattoni, who is 23 but could pass for 17, unscrews the hatch to reveal the inside of the “vessel” — empty but for the steel basket that holds the body. “[The manufacturer] said they can put a 500-pound person in the machine,” Cattoni says. Cattoni and other supporters of the technology, which is new to the “death care” industry but has been used in some hospitals to dispose of cadavers since the mid-1990s, say alkaline hydrolysis is the greener, eco-friendly way to dispose of human remains. Supporters say the process is like natural decay, only much faster.

“When we do it, there is no [chimney] stack, so it’s all captured in the liquid,” says Joe Wilson, CEO of Bio-Response Solutions, the Pittsboro, Ind., company that manufactured Cattoni’s machine. Some people will say it’s throwing Mama down the drain .... The fact of the matter is, when families are offered both options, over 80 percent choose this over flame cremation.” But is it legal? It is in eight states but might not be in Illinois.

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Controversial bill would allow terminally ill patients to decide when it's time to die
Thursday, September 27, 2012 — A state lawmaker says it’s time for New Jersey to openly discuss the most difficult of topics: whether terminally ill patients should be allowed to decide how and when they die.

Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) on Monday quietly proposed a bill that would grant doctors the right to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to patients who have less than six months to live. It’s called the New Jersey Death with Dignity Act. The South Jersey lawmaker wants suffering patients to have the option of ending their days on their own terms. He expects a long debate on the bill. "This is the beginning of discussing a topic that we’ve got to get a sense of how people feel," he said. "People are not favorable to a Dr. Kevorkian suicide bill that says someone who’s 45 and depressed and decides to kill themselves with help. That’s not what this bill is."

Under the bill, no law would be enacted without voter approval, but Burzichelli said he is not sure if the final version will call for a public referendum. If it becomes law, patients would self-administer the drugs. "In my mind it’s a matter of conscience, faith and a very private decision the individual should be in a position to make if they choose to," said Burzichelli.

Patrick Brannigan, executive director for the New Jersey Catholic Conference, said while the Church does not require "futile medical treatments or high-tech interventions for the dying" and backs palliative care to ease pain — it does not support hastening the end of life. "The New Jersey Death with Dignity Act as written is not about dignity or choice. The legislation would enable people to pressure others to an early death or even cause early death. The Act may also encourage patients with years to live to give up hope," Brannigan said. "The Bishops of New Jersey strongly oppose any direct, intentional or purposeful taking of a human life."

Mickey MacIntyre — chief program officer for Compassion & Choices, a group that provides counseling on end of life issues and pushes for legislation like Burzichelli’s across the country, said the bill would help patients and their families. "It gives them the opportunity to share a loving and peaceful death, the opportunity to say goodbye to each other and experience memories that would be an honorable tribute to the patient’s life as opposed to memories of horrible pain and suffering," he said. Under the bill (A3328), patients who want to end their lives would have to first verbally request a prescription, followed at least 15 days later by another verbal request and one in writing, signed by two witnesses.

More http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/09/controversial_bill_would_allow.html