Funeral Pyres judgment Reserved
BBC News (January 18, 2010)

Hindu Fights for Open-Air Cremation
UKPA (January 17, 2010)

Last week, a really interesting and potentially important court case appeared before a British Appeals Court. A British Hindu man, Davender Ghai, wants permission from the Newcastle City government to have his body cremated on an open air pyre.

Here is the BBC’s background on the story:

Davender Ghai, 70, was seeking to overturn a decision by Newcastle City Council in 2006 preventing such pyres.

He believes they are essential to “a good death” and the release of the spirit into the afterlife. Judges at the Court of Appeal said that all he had to show was that what he wanted fell within existing law. In February 2006 Mr Ghai, from Gosforth, Newcastle, and the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society

(AAFS), was refused a permit for an open-air cremation site in a remote part of Northumberland. Newcastle City Council said the burning of human remains anywhere outside a crematorium was prohibited under the 1902 Cremation Act, a ruling the Ministry of Justice agreed was correct.

There are several interesting angles to this story. First and foremost, every reason that the UK Courts have given as to why the open air cremations should not go forward is suspicious. Health and safety concerns can be easily monitored and controlled. Indeed, a health and safety officer could be dispatched to make sure that the law was followed and that the public health codes were not violated.

Perhaps the most significant (and unspoken) reason that the UK Courts have sided against Mr. Ghai is squeamishness. Given the fact that any number of UK Death Professionals (and I know of which I speak) could make sure that any open air cremation followed any and every conceivable best practice, the resulting reason seems to be that Court officials find the basic concept distasteful.

Unfortunately, that is not a legal reason to ultimately block Mr. Ghai’s funeral pyre wish.

The Appeals Court is expected to rule later in 2010.