Budget Cuts Prevent States from Performing Pauper Burials

Budget cuts across the nation are causing states to rethink burials provided for the indigent or unidentified, otherwise known as pauper burials. In order to save money, many states are switching to cremation unless the indigent individual’s religion bars it. Their remains would be commingled and poured into a deep vault.

In Detroit, state budget cuts allow the medical examiner’s office to bury about half the bodies that need to be buried, and some of his 185 bodies have been in the morgue since 2008. After negotiating with a local crematorium, each cremation costs $170 compared to $750 for each burial. This expense cut allowed him to cremate an additional 50 bodies last year.

The deliberations over the switch to cremations across the nation are getting heated as states are forced to balance monetary considerations with moral considerations.

See Kate Linebaugh, Even in Death, Budget Cuts Take a Toll, W.S.J., Jan. 24, 2011.