11 June 2025
The Law Commission is seeking views on how to regulate alkaline hydrolysis, human composting and other funerary methods outside of burial, cremation or burial at sea
Its consultation paper, ‘New funerary methods’, published last week, suggests creating a regulatory framework enforced through the criminal law. The current law on new funerary methods is unclear, although there is no explicit prohibition.
The consultation excludes processes that preserve bodies such as embalming and cryogenic freezing.
Professor Alison Young, commissioner, said regulation would provide ‘more choice in future about what happens to our bodies after we die’.
Respond by 4 September.
