Illinois considers legalizing ‘human composting’
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[March 10, 2023]
By ANDREW ADAMS
Capitol News Illinois
aadams@capitolnewsillinois.com
CHICAGO – Religious and environmental ideals are at odds for some in the
ongoing debate around what to do with human remains.
A proposal at the Illinois Statehouse would legalize and regulate
“natural organic reduction,” a process in which human remains are
rapidly decomposed into compost. The process is also known as human
composting or terramation.
That process turns human remains into dirt over the course of several
weeks. Companies that offer this service place a person’s remains in a
vessel with wood chips, straw and other organic material and heat it to
accelerate the growth of microbes that break down the body. This is
distinct from “natural burial,” in which a body is buried with no casket
or in a biodegradable container.
The measure, House Bill 3158, passed in the House Energy and Environment
Committee on Tuesday on a 16-10 vote. It now goes to the House for
consideration, although its sponsor, Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said
an amendment to the bill is likely.
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If lawmakers approve the proposal, Illinois would become the seventh
state to legalize this process. Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont,
California and New York have already made the process legal, according
to the human composting company Recompose.
Recompose pushed for the legalization of human composting in Washington.
Its website notes that a body will stay in the vessel for four to seven
weeks before the resulting soil is allowed to cure for two to six weeks.
A person’s loved ones are then left with approximately one cubic yard of
soil.
“Natural organic reduction is, in fact, the most environmentally
friendly death care option,” Haley Morris, a representative of the human
composting company Earth Funerals, said during the committee hearing.
“It’s less resource intensive than any other option and it reduces
carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 90 percent relative to traditional
options,” Moris added
Representatives of several environmental groups around the state have
also voiced their support of the bill in witness slips filed with the
committee. These include the Illinois Environmental Council, the
Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club and Go Green Winnetka.
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State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, is
pictured in a file photo. (Capitol News Illinois file photo)
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Cassidy filed an amendment on Wednesday altering some of the fee
structures for licensing the practice and indicated in an interview that
another forthcoming amendment will modify some of the regulations around
testing the compost.
“This is about creating choices and options and in particular choices
that are less harmful for the planet,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy also said she updated her own will last year to include that she
would like her body to undergo the natural organic reduction process.
Notable among the bill’s opponents is the Catholic Church. Daniel
Welter, the recently retired chancellor of the Archdiocese of Chicago,
spoke to lawmakers at the request of the Catholic Conference of Illinois
on Tuesday.
“Turning the mortal remains of a human person into compost for the
purpose of fertilization, as one would with vegetable trimmings or
eggshells, degrades the human person and dishonors the life that was
lived by that person,” he said during the committee hearing.
Welter added that he and the church “oppose any tendency to minimize the
dignity of a human being, even after death.”
Representatives of the death care industry also oppose legalizing this
process. LeNette Van Haverbeke, a representative of Illinois Cemetery
and Funeral Home Association, told lawmakers that many in the field
“oppose human composting as lacking the traditional dignity afforded to
the dead.”
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Others in the field are not as critical. After a similar bill was met
with opposition last year from the Illinois Funeral Directors
Association, Cassidy met with representatives of the industry to craft
new language regulating the vessels used in the process, professional
licensing and soil testing among other elements of the bill.
“I’m not saying we’re a proponent of it, but the sponsor did listen to
us,” said Margaret Vaughn of the Illinois Funeral Directors Association.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400
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is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation. |