Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – undertakers are critical of the planned reform of the funeral law in Saxony-Anhalt. In a draft law in the state parliament, the Greens had proposed, among other things, that burials should also be possible in cloths in the future and that the ashes of the deceased be scattered on one’s own property.
“A burial in towels can lead to problems with decomposition, which can cause problems with later burials,” said a joint statement by several associations on Friday. According to experts, burial in cloths requires suitable floors or a specially designed crypt with a cavity. According to the authors of the statement, if these conditions could not be met, the administration should be able to refuse burial in cloths. Undertakers, cemetery administrators, stonemasons and cemetery gardeners were involved in the statement.
They also refused to spread the ashes on private property. This will drive the “privatization of mourning”, the signatories explained. Thus, the place of mourning – insofar as it is on private property – is only accessible to others to a limited extent. This would exclude relatives, friends and acquaintances under certain circumstances.
The statement was handed over to the President of the State Parliament on Friday and is now to be forwarded to the advisory committees.
