Costco has been selling caskets over the internet for the last five years. But, because of regulations that make a sale in that state unattractive, they are not selling them in Georgia.
As soon as Walmart recently announced that they are also going to be selling caskets online, they received a letter from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. That letter told them that they are required to register with the state if they want to sell funeral merchandise and, until that process has been completed, they cannot sell caskets in Georgia.
So if you live in Georgia and want to buy a casket, at least for now you’ll have to do it the old fashioned way – buy it from a casket store or a funeral parlor. You won’t be able to buy it from Costco or Walmart online.
Tagged as:
casket,
coffin,
funeral arrangements
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 469 last weekend. It’s a bill that will enable family members of qualified veterans to ensure a proper burial for their loved ones. Spearheaded by state senator Sam Aanestad, it will allow the California Department of Veterans Affairs to waive the required $500 charged for burial at any veterans cemeteries run by the state when family members cannot afford to pay it.
According to Bill Baird, the senator’s press secretary, the legislation was drafted after the governor became aware that some dependents of honorably discharged veterans were turned away from the Northern California Veterans Cemetery because their relatives could not pay the fee.
Funding for the measure will be covered by private donations.
Tagged as:
CA military cemetery,
CA SB 469,
California military cemetery,
California VA death benefits,
diesmart,
Funerals,
VA death benefits
Anyone watching Brothers and Sisters last Sunday saw Justin Walker getting ready to cut open a cadaver as part of his medical school training. Where did that cadaver come from? How did it get to a medical school?
A brief history of cadavers
Medical schools have used cadavers for training for more than 200 years. Over this period of time, the methods of acquiring and preserving them have changed. Criminals who were executed for their crimes were used as the first cadavers since Christians believed that the souls of dissected bodies could not go to heaven and few offered their bodies to science. As the number of criminals being executed decreased, it became commonplace to steal bodies from graves in order to keep the market supplied.
The tradition of dissecting criminals continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth century when anatomy schools became popular in England and Scotland. The only cadavers available were criminals’, and anatomists were portrayed as no better than an executioner.
Continue and discuss …
Tagged as:
cadaver,
cremation,
diesmart,
funeral planning,
whole body donation
