Cities too poor to bury their dead

More cadavers for medical training. I don't see how this is a problem.

Welcome to third world America.

cook em up and eat em!

you laugh now.
wait 100 years.

I think people who hate paying taxes need to help out and take a few corpses home. Sit them in the living room and pretend they're your friend.

During the last depression a simmilar problem occured. Many famous people were actually burried in indigent cemetaries. Artists, Poets, Bankers, former millionaires, Veterans and war heroes, and the nameless bodies of countless more laid to rest without ceremony or anyone to care for them.

While you may say that the dead have no care, the living do. One of the few things that separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom is that we do know our own mortality. Even our earliest ancestors have been found in beds of flowers and with their arms laid in a restful position. We honor our dead because in them our own mortality is revealed, our humanity challenged and affirmed.

It is said that which you to to the least of these you do to me. That has always been the measure of what makes a truly great people. Those where to least well off are still shown the respect and decency befitting their station as fellow human beings.

Anyone telling me that America is a country that honors that oath, has never truly pondered the irony of stating the crede, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It doesn't say only for the best of men, only for landed gentry, and that is supposed to be what makes this nation great not any military bravado but by the power of a singular idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. I think that Death should not cede dignity in America and its as simple as that.

Burnn them before they become zombies. that would be a real buzz kill right now. What a buzz I have I think I like my new meds they make me feel real good. well for now any way but that can always change in a few days.

living in a suburb of Detroit, i can't say that i've heard much about this. unfortunately there isn't a great deal of money, and the dead will more than likely be the LAST to get any money (so to speak). and as harsh as i may sound, around here, the living need it more

Build a fire..............insert body.

cremation mabey?hell of a lot better than letting them rot in a basment with allthere corpse buddies...

cremation,mabey?its a hell of a lot better than letting them rot in a basement with 500 of there best corpse buddies...

Ok! I think it is time to have a little talk about fire.Fire you see makes big stuff little by taking all the water out of it so all you have is the Ash of what it was so if you take fire and put all the dead bodies in the fire you can burn one at a time or to save money you can burn a bunch at a time, I don't care . Any way burn the bodies and burie the ashes. But just maybe people should donate there bodies to science. I think thats what I am going to do. I'm sure some medical student is going to get a kick out of taking me apart. I think someone is going to look at my Brain. Then think to them selves just how did this guy funcion. But thats just an idea. It's still up to someone else on just what happens to me after I die. I just hope that I am a use to someone for something.

Due to its enormous popularity, Soylent Green is in short supply, so remember—Tuesday is Soylent Green day!

It's not just the indigent they had, people that finally got money from the deceased church.

I can't believe some of the heartlessness in these post. Bury the bitch...WTF!!! Wonder if it was your child. You assume that maybe they are drunks or drugies that lay in the morgue,and when you assume...you know the rest.

put me in the oven, scoop me out, and scatter the leavins' on the first chairlift of the season @ targhee... ;o)

How can we be this broke? Why does digging a hole or burning a body cost that much? There has to be a group of people who will volenter to dig or transport or what ever else needs to be done.

GET OUT THE SHOVELS OR DONATE THEM TO SCIENCE. They are good fertilizer and they don't care, THEY'RE DEAD!

They should donate the bodies to science fiction.

Change we can Bereave In. F\re it up !

America, you are now a 3rd world country.

Congrats.

Not so good for the health of the living in the area.

Please, grab a shovel and put these people to rest. We don't need fancy caskets that cost 10,000$... We are made from the Earth, lets go back naturally. With no embalming or locked cement caskets. Why are we so afraid of this... and think this is the correct way to bury people?

Where the United States went wrong is assuming people are smart enough to take care of their own.

Too many Americans are way too dependant on the Government.

I could've sworn we were in the 21st century...this sounds like a problem they had back in the Dark Ages....WTF? This is America? Pathetic. Time to get the flamethrowers.

One word incenerator! The animal control center always has one fired up! They won't mind a few more on the pile! And remember always spay and nueter your pets. And children for that matter....

Looking at these responses, it seems some of you may have not fully read the actual article. To the comments about the "family" being responsible, the article expressly states that these are the "dead poor" and the "indigent and unclaimed." State and county budgets have always been used to bury "indigent and unclaimed" bodies. What do you believe they do (and will do) with the growing ranks of street people, homeless people of all kinds, including families, and others who die in county hospitals or on the streets, in shelters, and now maybe even those in the tent cities popping up across the country?

As to the article "being vague," it's quite the opposite. In the second paragraph it cites numbers and facts from the "CNN Assignment Detroit Project." Sixty-seven people are being held at Detroit's Wayne County Morgue. Detroit has a paltry budget of $21,000 to bury unclaimed bodies. I guess in previous days, as in before this recession, that might have sufficed. Now with the city's unemployment rate at 28%, even those who could claim bodies cannot come up with the money. The CNN report cites one sad example:

"Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell's aunt, Nancy Graham -- and say their goodbyes.
The couple, already financially strained, don't have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don't have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell's grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card -- at 21% interest.
So the Vickers had to leave their aunt behind. Body number 67. 'It's devastating to a family not to be able to take care of their own,' said Darrell. "But there's really no way to come up with that kind of cash in today's society. There's just no way.'"

The Huffington Post article gives further statistics and alarming scenarios in Alabama and Illinois.

This is only one ugly, small piece of the thousands of shattered pieces left in the wake of this recession. The media continue to look to Wall Street and the same rich, ruling class folks who brought us this never-ending catastrophe to advise us on how the country is faring. So if the Dow Jones is up, and jobless claims are down by a few, then all will be well. Just don't think about the millions who still can't find a job, and put food on the table; the millions who've lost their homes; the poor and vulnerable who pile up in morgues...

Where are those magical billions that bandaid and fixes everything?

Car companies get 'em......

But why don't they just incinerate them?

not trying to be insensitive, but i thought when someone passes the family is responsible for all the financial responsibilities. having governments saying bodies are piling up makes me wonder what exactly is all of these poor people's money going for??

why aint they burnt ist simple and not land intensive.

Please cite which cities, and which government should be responsible for paying for the burial. This article (if that's what you'd call it) was extremely vague and seemed to be more intent on being a headline grabber than talking about facts.

Last time I checked THE FAMILY of the dead person pays a fuck ton, one cubic fuck ton to be exact, of money to bury a person nowadays. So it's not like these places aren't getting their burial money. And I've never heard of the government having to pay to bury people. Because I live in Oklahoma, I'm pretty sure the morons here would be spitting screaming about socializing death or some such nonsense if their government tax dollars were going to burying the dead.

Are we even talking fed or state? Please specify and edit this one sentence long article.

Why doesn't the city just cremate them? I mean that has to be cheaper than digging a hole, putting unclaimed remains in a box, and then burying them. I could see cremated remains being easily disposed. Or what about using them as cadavers for medical schools? Yes, that sounds insensitive and I'll admit that but where is the money going to come from to bury each of these bodies? This is something that government officials need to be objective about. I'll field your hate mail about my cold, robotic tactics in dealing with human life.

We need to respect our dead no matter who they are. It is a part of being human. I am sure there is tax money out there spent of crap that could be used for this purpose. How fkn sad! % (

What a sick situation. To not be able to bury your love one is just plain wrong. What is going on in this world? the more I see the less I want to see. I have worked in Hospice care for years this is just not respectable for a country as great as ours. At least in a 3rd world country they make sure thier loved ones are taken care of after death. Unexceptable!!!!

Didn't we recently have a conversation about the best weapons for the zombie uprising?

i'd love to hear how the kooky libertarians would want to solve this problem.