Tougher laws needed
for funeral industryThe issue: Prosecutors are
finding it difficult to decide
what charges to file in abuse cases.THE macabre discovery of more than 300 human remains that were strewn across a Georgia pine grove instead of cremated as intended has caused outrage, along with alarm about the lack of regulation of the funeral industry. Hawaii has been brought into the fray by allegations that a Hilo mortuary owner stole caskets from buried corpses.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., has asked the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to launch an inquiry into funeral-home practices, foolishly limiting the probe's scope to Georgia, California, Florida and Hawaii. The problem is national, but that should not prevent Hawaii legislators from considering changes in state law.
Jessica Mitford's 1963 best-selling expose of the funeral industry, "The American Way of Death," should have led to correcting the abuse, but obviously it didn't. Across the country, state laws regulating the funeral business are sparse. Also, according to prominent Michigan funeral director Thomas Lynch, corporate cemetery and mortuary-conglomerate lobbies have resisted the National Funeral Directors Association's call for inspection of cemeteries and crematories by the Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for enforcing federal rules governing funeral homes.
In the 1980s, 51 bodies designated for cremation in Oregon were found to have been stored in a garage and then buried in mass graves, while a California undertaker stuffed organs from as many as 30 corpses into ovens, later distributing bags of the ashen composite to unsuspecting relatives. An Ohio undertaker claimed artistic freedom when he photographed corpses with apples and books without relatives' permission.
The body of a Maui woman allegedly was allowed to decompose over a weekend outside a morgue's refrigerator in 1995. No criminal charges were filed, but the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the family can claim emotional distress in a lawsuit alleging mishandling of a corpse.
No charges have been filed against Robert Diego, owner of Memorial Mortuary in Hilo, who denies allegations by two families that he stole caskets from graves, leaving the corpses in body bags. Diego contends that the wooden caskets could have rotted away. The state Attorney General's Office said last month it was considering "nonintrusive scans" of burial sites by metal detectors for signs of metal handles, screws and other parts.
Under what seems to be the most relevant Hawaii law, abuse of a corpse is a crime. However, it is merely a misdemeanor and typically is tagged onto murder or manslaughter charges in cases where the victim's body was mutilated.
The same is true in most other states. That includes Georgia, where Ray Brent Marsh, who allegedly left corpses to decay on the 16-acre grounds of his Tri-State Crematory. Marsh is charged with 204 counts of theft by deception, which, while a felony, is comparable to charging a date rapist with fraud.
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State yielding
to tobacco temptationThe issue: Hawaii is tagged
for using tobacco settlement money
for unrelated purposes.A GROUP that advocates using tobacco settlement funds specifically for prevention programs may judge Hawaii too severely in ranking the state as one of the worst in the nation for devoting money for that purpose. The group's narrow measures disregard many services and policies aimed at health care and research associated with tobacco use.
At the same time, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, does keep the pressure on state governments to prevent them from raiding tobacco funds for other purposes. By it own accounts, it appears that the group has carved out a difficult task.
At the end of last year, only seven states were using tobacco funds for anti-smoking programs at the minimum levels defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Economic conditions since Sept. 11 are tempting many more states -- including Hawaii -- to divert tobacco money to make up for budget shortfalls.
Hawaii previously enjoyed the distinction of being among the few states properly using their money, earmarking 60 percent of its annual allotment of about $40 million for prevention campaigns, a trust fund and health-related services. But last fall, during the emergency budget session, the state Legislature designated some of the funds to finance $150 million in bonds to build a medical school. Lawmakers also cut by half the $10 million a year that went into the trust, the interest from which pays for prevention programs. This session, legislators are considering diverting another $3 million in tobacco funds to meet budget demands.
These actions pushed Hawaii into the advocacy group's ranks of "most disappointing," but not as disappointing as other states. Tennessee and North Carolina, for example, use their funds to provide financial aid to tobacco farmers who have been hurt by decreases in demand for their product. Connecticut has applied its money to hold off increases in property taxes.
Although the group views the medical school as a capitol improvement project, Hawaii officials can defend it on a broader measure because the complex will include the Cancer Research Center. With $10 million pegged for prevention, the state is still within the CDC target of $10 million to $23 million, albeit at the low end.
Additional diversions, however, would be a mistake. More than 27 percent of Hawaii's high school students smoke and 18.7 percent of adults continue to puff away. Smoking remains "the No. 1 problem in this state," says Bruce Anderson, director of the Department of Health, "and we're losing the battle in the teenage population."
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comJohn Flanagan, contributing editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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