Mortuary Science Career

The reason I’d personally like to become a funeral director is quiet a simple one. Having been in the military and being around so many people who have lost loved ones or even being deployed and seeing what happens to those of us who aren’t so lucky to return, I want to be a part of the coping the families go through. I have had a longing since I can remember to help people before I joined the service as a police officer I was a volunteer fire fighter and being able to help those who are in tough situations whether it be in a combat theater or at home in the states it feels almost as if it’s my calling.

After reading, The Embalming of Mr. Jones by Jessica Mitford, I was in shock about the whole process that happens hour after death. Previously, when I heard about embalming I thought they basically just cleaned the body up and dressed them up for the casket showing, but now that I know what actually happens I’m a little grossed out. The body shouldn’t be changed so much because you want to see them as you last remember not reconstructed due to the embalming. While the bodies are deceased, I can't help but wonder if they are feeling all of this happening. I feel bad for Mr. Jones and others who have been through the process. I can’t even imagine what it is like for the embalmer, and how they can go through with it.

In the essay “The Embalming of Mr. Jones,” (1963), Jessica Mitford is describing a procedure of embalming of a corpse. She writes that people pay a ton of money each year, but “not one in ten thousand has any idea of what actually takes place,” and it is extremely hard to find books and any information about this subject. She assumes that it must be a reason for such secrecy, and may be if people knew more about this procedure, they would not want this service after their death.

(http://www.bls.gov/)About 6 colleges and universities offer programs that culminate in a bachelor’s degree. In addition, many specialized, stand alone funeral service institutions offer two-year programs, although some are 4 years in length. Mortuary science programs include courses in anatomy, physiology, pathology, embalming techniques, restorative art, business management, accounting and use of computers in funeral home management, and client services. They also include courses in the social sciences and in legal, ethical, and regulatory subjects such as psychology, grief counseling, oral and written communication, funeral service law, business law, and ethics.

requires of you, and the outlook of this career in the future of the United

The tone of Mitford’s essay “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain” reflects her disapproval of the embalming process. To illustrate, she uses harrowing words like “subjected” and “gruesomeness” to convey a message of disgust and unease within the readers. It is good she wrote her essay in a simple and satiric way, so that it is very easy for the common man to read and comprehend it, while the comedy and horrible detail leaves the terrible imagery of the embalming procedures in one’s mind long after reading. Texts like this one, and ones similar to it are very important as society evolves. It would seem that many people would read this and it would greatly influence whether they would want their family members embalmed or even what they would desire

Moreover, they have to keep secrets within their practice. The Funeral director position is an overlooked, mentally demanding and exhausting job that often goes without any appreciation in our communities until we lose a loved one. Many other professions deal with death for example, doctors and police, but those professions are widely praised and recognized unlike most Funeral directors. They love serving people, but struggle to maintain a personal life along their work that deals solely with death. Depression is a common outcome for this profession as they deal heavily with the isolation their job

The history of ceremonies for care of the dead goes back as far as 60,000 BC when the Neanderthals used flowers and animal antlers to decorate the dead. Embalming originated in 4000 BC with the Egyptians but was uncommon there until 3400 BC. Embalming was first introduced in to the US by Dr. Thomas Holmes (1817-1900)

Dead?" AlterNet. In this article, Frankie Colmane looks into how dead bodies are treated in the United State even after Mitford's expose of the funeral industry was published. The article takes both a philosophical and scientific issue with the procedure of embalming sighting proven negative effects to human beings and the environment. Colmane shows that even though people are aware of the malfeasance and misappropriations of the funeral industry following pieces like Mitford's, very little has changed. Therefore problems that have been discussed in earlier works should not be forgotten. Rather they should be continually brought up until the issue is solved. During the 1800s, embalming became common practice because the dead family member would lie in state within the home for a period of days or weeks until it would be buried (Colmane 2010). The article shows the duplicity such as when "funeral directors were arguing forcefully against charges that their mediation between the living and the dead translated into social obstruction that barred the stricken from facing death with maturity, realism, and honest" (page 2). This article will be used to illustrate that things have not changed with funereal practices despite the publication of Mitford's essay.

A funeral director can be a male or female who handles the care of the deceased from the time of death until burial. The person must attend college and receive a degree in mortuary science. A two year apprenticeship will be a learning business and directing a funeral. Funeral directing is beneficial and rewarding. A two year program is offered locally with duties including handling of remains, embalming, and funeral services (Lee).

Your cell phone rings in the middle of the night and you are notified that you have to go to work. After hastily getting ready, you find yourself walking down a hallway; you turn into an empty doorway and enter a dark, cold room that is filled with lifeless bodies waiting to be attended to. This may be an unfavorable situation to many, but to a funeral director, it is just another day at work. In order to become a funeral director, one must be genuinely interested, willing to fulfill the job requirements, be able to cope with death on a daily basis, and still maintain a positive outlook on life.

(Lamers 535). You would be required to fill in any open wounds left on the body

There are a few risks involves with this job. For instance, if you simply weren’t careful, you could get sick just from an autopsy of someone who died from something contagious. Aside from that, forensic pathologists often have to take time off to go to court as a medical examiner. Also, some things can affect you because they were more than you expected.

30 years is a short time in the working world, considering that embalming school can be less than a year to 4 years max. If an average worker does four years and enters the embalming world at 22, then by just 52, there is a chance they could get myeloid leukemia and that is at the more extreme estimates as realistically, more than 1/10 of funeral homes would offer embalming in America. In reality, it is estimated that if an embalmer worked for at least 20 years, they were in the group with the greatest risk to get myeloid leukemia (13). And if you went to a two-year embalming program, you might just get leukemia by your 40th birthday. Happy birthday! And that’s considering if you didn’t work a place like Staten Island’s Paccione Funeral Directors,

As she continued on the topic, she commented that people hear things about the profession and assume that a funeral home cannot provide certain services. Families have the option to be involved for the preparation of their loved one, home funerals can be arranged and “green” products can be supplied to families requesting such items. “Depending on a family’s preferences, a green funeral can include any or all of the following: a small gathering in a natural setting, use of only recycled paper products, locally-grown organic flowers, carpooling, organic food, no embalming, or embalming with formaldehyde-free products, the use of sustainable biodegradable clothing, shroud or casket, and natural or green burial” (National Funeral Directors Association, 2017). “Green” cemeteries tend to be far from an individual’s home, so interring a loved one and not having the option of constantly visiting, is out of the question. Being curious on who Shivon interviewed during her course in the program, I was dumbfounded when she informed me her interviewee discouraged her to continue her path to become an embalmer, due to her gender. After my complete shock wore off, she informed me that I’ve been living in a “bubble” since I work for Forest Lawn and that other mortuaries observed women as inferior. “Fortunately, we do not have to experience women discrimination at Forest Lawn. We work for an organization that