Ohio funeral home sues, wants to liquefy bodies

Published 2:49 pm Thursday, March 24, 2011

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The first U.S. funeral home to publicly offer a cremation alternative that dissolves bodies with lye and heat has filed a lawsuit alleging Ohio regulators don’t have authority to block it from using the procedure.

The National Funeral Directors Association says Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus is the only U.S. funeral business offering alkaline hydrolysis.

A state board recently determined that’s not an acceptable way to dispose of bodies, and the Ohio Department of Health issued a memo that blocks the funeral process if that method is used.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday says those decisions have kept the funeral home from using the method on a woman’s remains as requested by her husband.

The board did not immediately respond to a message Thursday, and an ODH spokeswoman declined to comment.