Composting of human remains

Richard A. Sokerka

The composting of human remains is now legal in the state of Washington.

Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed legislation into law last week allowing the practice of “aboveground decomposition,” making Washington the first state in the nation to allow human remains to become compost. It takes effect in May 2020.

The so-called “natural organic reduction” process,” involves placing bodies in “vessels” and using wood chips and straw to turn the bodies into about two wheelbarrows of soil within a month. It is suggested that families of the deceased can keep the new material to spread or even use it to plant vegetables or a tree.

“It’s certainly no coincidence that this degrading novelty will be tried first in Washington state,” said Camille Pauley, president and CEO of the Healing the Culture in Spokane, Wash. “Washington ranks No. 1 as the most pro-abortion state in the country, and it’s one of a small handful of jurisdictions that have legalized physician-assisted suicide. Through its laws, Washington state teaches that the human body has no intrinsic dignity even when alive. Thus, it isn’t terribly surprising that Washington law now regards the deceased human body as having little more value than cow dung. The urgent task before us is to teach every man, woman and child that they are infinitely more valuable than that — before and after death.”

The Washington State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, had stated that it was unequivocally opposed to the bill, saying that composting ran contrary to Church teaching about respect for the body. “Disposing human remains in such a manner fails to show respect for the body of the deceased,” Joseph Sprague, executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference, wrote in a letter to a legislative committee.

It is our sincere hope that Catholics in the state of Washington continue to honor and respect the body in line with Church teachings and reject “natural organic reduction.”

This latest degradation of and clear lack of respect for the body of the deceased continues the state of Washington’s slide into the full-blown acceptance of the ideologies of the progressive left: no respect for life in the womb, no respect for the elderly, and now no respect for the dead.