Should we rename it the Ira Einhorn bill?
Whatever you want to call it, Save Jersey, legislation which “allows for the natural organic reduction or controlled supervised decomposition of deceased individuals” sailed through both houses of the New Jersey Legislature on Monday.
Eight other U.S. states have okayed the process (including California, Maryland, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Vermont, and New York), which costs approximately $7,000 and takes about six months to complete as the body is enclosed in a tank with wood chips, grass clippings, dry straw, and other “natural” materials. The end result: a cubic yard of compost that used to be a human being but which will henceforth be plant food. The legislation (as you undoubtedly guessed) is popular with some environmentalists who view the practice as an eco-friendly way to go out.
The bill itself – which now heads to Governor Murphy’s desk – may be somewhat more controversial than the legislature’s near-nanimous votes suggest.
“There is nothing distinguishably left of the body to be placed in a casket or an urn and laid to rest in a sacred place where Christian faithful can visit for prayer and remembrance,” explained the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. New Jersey is one of the country’s most Catholic states by percentage of the population.
You don’t have much freedom when you’re actually living in New Jersey.
When you’re dead? Or want to die? A different story!
