When do embalmed bodies decompose

If the deceased is buried six feet down without a coffin in ordinary soil, an un-embalmed adult normally takes weeks to decompose to a skeleton. However, an embalmed body placed in a coffin enables the body to last for many years depending on the type of wood used.

An embalmed body can last up to ten years or longer under normal burial circumstances. The reason for embalming is to preserve the body for a certain amount of time, to try to stave off the deterioration of the body.

For the celebrity or great leader, it is a way to remain immortal, to defy death and have their image live on forever. Without going into too much detail, the way the body is embalmed is the secret to the longevity of the deceased. Understanding this process will enable you to understand why the time spent preparing the body is necessary. Visting to view the body can be very helpful to the mourning process.

To see the deceased in a calm, almost serene pose can help the family and friends to say goodbye. Buddhists and Hindus usually choose cremation. Muslims and Jews, whose religious laws forbid embalming, embrace natural burial , the way billions of bodies have been buried for eons — without preservation. More than twenty years after my mother died, my best friend, Carol, also died of breast cancer. Carol was not embalmed. She looked dead. She felt dead. At the viewing, her skin was very cold and hard when I kissed her goodbye.

We wrapped her in a muslin shroud and buried her in a meadow. It was a necessary farewell. Later, her husband planted a tree there. My father bought a waterproof coffin because he knew that the same thing happens to all bodies, no matter what we do. He pretended to himself that steel could stop it. But nothing can stop it. To contemplate death is to contemplate our own denial of it.

Perhaps we beautify corpses or hide them from our sight not out of wanting to remember people as they were, but because we know that someday we will be as they are. We all feel resistance to death. To see a dead body — a plain, real dead body, without decoration — is to see the world as it really is, and this makes all the difference. Hindus and Buddhists choosing cremation have no need for embalming. Embalming is rarely required by law. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission and many state regulators require that funeral directors inform consumers that embalming is not required except in certain special cases.

Embalming is mandated when a body crosses state lines from Alabama, Arkansas, and New Jersey, and several others require it if public transportation is used. Embalming provides no public health benefit, according to the U.

Centers for Disease Control and Canadian health authorities. One state, Hawaii, even forbids embalming even if the person died of certain contagious diseases. Many morticians have been taught, however, that embalming protects the public health, and they continue to perpetuate this myth.

In fact, embalming chemicals are highly toxic. Embalmers are required by OSHA to wear a respirator and full-body covering while embalming. Embalming does not preserve the human body forever; it merely delays the inevitable and natural consequences of death. The rate of decomposition will vary, depending on the strength of the chemicals and methods used, and the humidity and temperature of the final resting place.

Ambient temperature has more effect on the decomposition process than the amount of time elapsed since death, whether or not a body has been embalmed.

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Find an Office. Contact Us. The Stages Of Human Decomposition Human decomposition is a natural process involving the breakdown of tissues after death. What are the Four Stages of Human Decomposition?

Stage One: Autolysis The first stage of human decomposition is called autolysis, or self-digestion, and begins immediately after death. Stage Two: Bloat Leaked enzymes from the first stage begin producing many gases.