[Comparative normative on sanitary practices of cadaveric preservation in Spain]

In this paper the current regulations on cadaveric preservation practices required for the transfer of corpses in the different Autonomous Communities -Reglamentos de Policía Sanitaria Mortuoria- and national legislation are compared. The criteria taken into account have been: a) which sanitary practices are included in the regulations, b) which ones can be carried out in corpses posing a health risk, c) when they are compulsory to be carried out, d) when they can be carried out after death, and e) what professionals can carry them out and/or take responsibility for them. At the time of finishing the paper, a new mortuary regulation is being passed in Andalusia, as well as a decree from the Ministry of Health on technical and sanitary requirements concerning international transfer of corpses and human remains.

No place, new places: death and its rituals in urban Asia

In many land-scarce Asian cities, planning agencies have sought to reduce space for the dead to release land for the living, encouraging conversion from burial to cremation over several decades. This has caused secular principles privileging efficient land use to conflict with symbolic values invested in burial spaces. Over time, not only has cremation become more accepted, even columbaria have become overcrowded, and new forms of burials (sea and woodland burials) have emerged. As burial methods change, so too do commemorative rituals, including new on-line and mobile phone rituals. This paper traces the ways in which physical spaces for the dead in several east Asian cities have diminished and changed over time, the growth of virtual space for them, the accompanying discourses that influence these dynamics and the new rituals that emerge concomitantly with the contraction of land space.

"The last thing that tells our story": the Roodepoort West Cemetery, 1958-2008

This article attempts to capture some of the complexity in the way that memory, meaning and agenda interact in the history of the cemetery of Roodepoort West. Roodepoort West was the 'old location' where Africans and others lived until 1955, after which a gradual process of removals took place until 1967, when it was finally destroyed. However, not everything was lost of the old location. The cemetery remained, after unrest caused by the proposed removal of the local cemetery during the late 1950s persuaded the authorities to leave it alone. More recently, the cemetery has played a part in land restitution, becoming both a site of tension and remembrance. This article explores the many meanings attached to the old cemetery, and funerals more broadly, over a period of time beginning from the 1950s to 2005. By looking at the history of funerals, and the cemetery, new insights and an alternative understanding of what it meant to live in an urban area in Apartheid South Africa can be gained.

Confessions of a Wannabe (American Folklore Society Presidential Invited Plenary Address, October 2009)

This paper is a written rendering of a plenary address delivered at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society. Drawing on materials from his forthcoming book Confessions of a Wannabe, the author provides a personal account of the deeply emotional sense of responsibility, obligation, and reciprocity involved in long-term ethnographic research among Native American communities, particularly the Omaha and Pawnee tribes of Nebraska. The author details the ways in which personal relations with the people and communities he has observed have shaped his personal and professional life, and he calls into question the ideal of purportedly neutral or distanced ethnography. Details are provided of the author's experiences in converting his farm into an appropriate reburial site for repatriated Pawnee remains recovered under the aegis of the Native American Graves Repatriation and Protection Act (NAGPRA).

[Burying family pets: legislation, risks, and recommendations]

At one point or other all pet owners are confronted with the death of their pet. To safeguard public health and to prevent the transmission of disease, there are regulations concerning the burial of family pets. This article focuses on relevant regulations and potential risks and provides recommendations for the burial of family pets.

Lessons from our patients: development of a warm autopsy program

Kaminski and colleagues discuss the lessons they have learned in establishing a warm autopsy program to advance research on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

[Cremation plant planning and related hygienic-sanitary aspects]

The number of cremators is set to grow in Italy owing to current increasing demand for cremation, as a system of burial as well as a system of disposal of non-decomposed human remains resulting from operations of exhumation (as provided by the Circular No. 10 of 31 July of 1998 of the Ministry of Health). Some indications on how town planners need to size up the cremation plant with regard to its capacity to face cremation demand, in order to avoid any hygienic-sanitary inconveniences are given. As a matter of fact, for planning the demand for cremation from Circular No. 10 of 31 July of 1998 it is necessary to assess the decomposition time in burial sites.

An introduction to the law of death and the body as property

District nurses often encounter the death of patients as part of their primary care role. Patients with serious illness frequently wish to continue their rehabilitation at home and those with terminal illness often return home to die surrounded by their families and supported by district nurses.

Law relating to pregnancy, stillbirths and miscarriages and disposal

Brenda was 5 months' pregnant when she miscarried. She was seriously ill but when she recovered she asked for the foetal remains to be made available to be buried in her local churchyard. She subsequently discovered that they had been incinerated and she wished to sue the hospital.

Health and safety considerations following the death of a patient

Arthur, who had spent all his life in Liverpool, came to live with his niece in Brighton. He was in his eighties and systematically prepared for his death. He told her that he would like to be cremated and the ashes returned to Liverpool. On his death in hospital, the family made arrangements for him to be cremated. Unfortunately no one remembered or checked about the fact that a heart pacemaker had been inserted many years before, and when questioned by funeral directors, no warnings were given by the family. The pacemaker exploded in the crematorium and the local authority who was responsible for its upkeep claimed compensation from the family or NHS trust. Who, if anyone, is liable?

[Forensic medicine experiences in cremation autopsy in Bonn]

2016 coroner's crematorial inquests of the Bonn Institute of Legal Medicine over a 3 years' period were evaluated and the statements in the death certificates were compared to those ones of the Statistical Country Office of Northrhine-Westphalia. No significant differences were found with respect to age, gender and reason of death. However, the number of insufficiently classified deaths with respect to the reason of death were overrepresented especially in cases of older women, while the number of unnatural deaths was generally underrepresented. According to legal medical criteria 2 1/4 per cent of the deaths were falsely classified as natural. Only in 2 cases an autopsy was accomplished. Other author's statements on the validity of death certificates were confirmed.