{"id":145635,"date":"2026-06-04T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145635"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T23:01:41","slug":"church-times-regulate-new-funerary-methods-law-commission-recommends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145635","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Regulate new funerary methods, Law Commission recommends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>the regulation of new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/funerals\">funerary methods<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 including \u201cwater cremations\u201d and human composting \u2014 has been recommended by the Law Commission of England and Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The independent statutory body, set up to keep the law under review and to make recommendations to the Government, published on Thursday a report on reforming new funerary methods. It was preceded by a consultation paper, published last June, which received 124 responses from faith communities, funeral directors, local authorities, industry bodies, and members of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, the law in England and Wales recognises only burial, cremation, and, though less common, burial at sea. New funerary methods are alternatives to these, such as alkaline hydrolysis (sometimes known as \u201cwater cremation\u201d) and human composting, which are not currently covered by any specific legal framework, but which are available in certain other jurisdictions. In Scotland, for example, regulations have recently been made enabling the use of alkaline hydrolysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2026\/5-june\/news\/uk\/regulate-new-funerary-methods-law-commission-recommends\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The regulation of new funerary methods \u2014 including \u201cwater cremations\u201d and human composting \u2014 has been recommended by the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/LawCommission?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LawCommission<\/a> of England and Wales<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/funerarymethods?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#funerarymethods<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/watercremations?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#watercremations<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/humancomposting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#humancomposting<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/churchnews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#churchnews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/churchtimes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#churchtimes<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nnqdTBvWWF\">https:\/\/t.co\/nnqdTBvWWF<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/2062521721752543443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the regulation of new\u00a0funerary methods\u00a0\u2014 including \u201cwater cremations\u201d and human composting \u2014 has been recommended by the Law Commission of England and Wales. The independent statutory body, set up to keep the law under review and to make recommendations to<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145635\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,438,199,168,184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-england","category-death-burial-funerals","category-england-uk","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-parish-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145635"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145640,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145635\/revisions\/145640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}