STOP BIO-CREMATIONS! OUR OCEANS HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH!

We, the People of California, want the Governor of California, Jerry Brown and the Legislature to stop or repeal any law authorizing Bio-Cremation in California.  

We, currently, have people protesting and wanting to ban off-shore drilling because millions of gallons of petroleum are being pumped into our ocean and now the same people appear, to have no qualm in pumping the chemically treated remains of millions of dead people into our oceans for the marine life to consume.   

Make up your mind, either we protect our oceans or destroy our oceans.  You cannot have it both ways. 

Burial of loved ones is such an important part of our lives that we believe that this issue of Bio-Cremation should be taken up, at a later time, when our state is not undergoing a major financial budgetary crisis and view the procedure as simply a way for the government to make money.  Our families deserve better!

The procedure will allow mortuaries to dissolve human remains through a combination of water pressure, heat and alkalinity; a process named alkaline hydrolysis but referred to as bio-cremation. But the whole process seems to scream of environmental abuse. 

They contend that Bio-Cremation is a good fit for a state promoting green technology that there is no smoke, no emissions, no carbon footprint, nothing left to destroy the Earth.

The process produces a sterile liquid that isn't harmful and can be disposed of at a water treatment plant, supporters contend.

If that is, truly, the case that it is a sterile liquid and not harmful then why can't it simply be poured out onto the ground, instead of being sent to any form of treatment plants.

At the treatment plants, chemicals, I am sure, will be combined with the Quote sterile liquid Unquote to neutralize any remaining human residue.  But depending on the treatment plant is the final destination of this water going to be for agricultural purposes to grow our food, to supply us with drinking water or to be flushed out to sea and feed the fish with the chemically treated remains?

We already have three options for burial.  One option is burial in the ground, another is cremation by fire and the third, of course, is burial at sea, but this burial at sea does not require chemical treatments and the body becomes fodder for sea life.

 
How many gallons of water are we going to use to dissolve one body? Do we use clean water or recycled water?  If it is recycled water does that mean that the previous body chemicals are now mixing with the new body and bones?  If it is clean water shouldn't it be saved for drinking purposes or planting crops? 

If the liquid remains are sent to a treatment plant will it be to a water treatment plant and will we find out that we are now drinking the chemical remains of our neighbors and friends, or if it is a sewage treatment plant is the chemical remains now intended to feed the fish in the sea? What will happen if these treatment plants overflow?  Who will be responsible for cleaning up this mess?  How will it affect the ecosystem in the ocean? 

Is the liquid going to be hand carried to the water treatment plant (I doubt it) or is a nozzle, simply, going to be turned on and the liquid fluid will flow into the nearest drainage receptacle?  Are we going to experience a break in a waterline somewhere between the mortuary and the treatment plant?  Are body parts suddenly going to come spewing up out of the ground for everyone to view?  

Do you want the remains of your friends treated with the other sewage of our society? Shouldn't death be a little more dignified?

The bones are not even dissolved by the process.  Someone has to pulverize or process the bones for placement into an urn for loved ones later. 

It does not sound cost effective to me, especially, since it costs several hundred dollars more than a cremation to purchase for a loved one.

 
The builders of the process cannot even decide how much they want to charge the funeral homes to purchase their equipment to bio-cremate the dead. The current cost is between $200,000 and $500,000 each.   

The Republican and Democratic legislators in California cannot even work together to increase taxes or make cuts in spending to help the economy, but they are ready to sell out a dignified burial of loved ones so that they can receive the sales tax revenue from the purchases of these glorified crock pots.  Is this how our future budgets are going to be met?

The law being considered would require the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to adopt safety regulations for bio-cremation by July 2011.  Does this mean that they are going to mandate that every funeral home purchase one to protect our environment?

 
They say the purpose of Bio-Cremation is to protect our state, our country from air pollution and/or greenhouse gas emissions, but, in doing so they have to sacrifice our spiritual humanity, as well as the fragile health of the oceans of our world. 

Tell them no!  Our Oceans are sacred and need to be protected.  Tell them no!  Our bodies deserve better.

Representatives of the Jewish faith expressed their views that "Jewish tradition is that bodies be buried, but it is unlikely that Jews would object to the state allowing alkaline hydrolysis as an option," and that "We respect the choices of non-Jews to do things that we would not do for ourselves," but then went on to qualify their position "as a matter of religious freedom. I would then counsel Jews not to use this method as a matter of religious conviction and tradition."

Why does this whole BIO-CREMATION process smell so much like Nazi Germany and their death camps?   At what point after we start the process of bio-cremating people does our government suddenly dictate that a normal funeral or cremation is no longer acceptable and that the Bio-Cremation process will become the only valid method of burial?

 
If we look at our bodies as only shells utilized while on Earth, then why are we so concerned about obesity, smoking cigarettes, and other health hazards, such as Aids or Cancer?   

I do not believe God loaned us bodies to use without commitments and one of them is that we do not flush our bodies out to sea.

SAVE OUR OCEANS AND OUR RIGHT TO DIE WITH PRIDE!

MICHAEL LEE MADSEN SR