News18: Funeral Director Debunks Myth That Cemeteries Will Eventually Run Out of Space

The shrinking space in graveyards is a looming problem in many parts of the world, especially the US. There has been a myth that cemeteries never run out of space. Funeral director Victor M Sweeney has debunked this idea. He has talked about this idea in a conversation with the news portal Wired. In a new Q&A with Wired, Victor was asked: “How come cemeteries never run outta space?” Victor explained that sometimes there is a problem with space in the cemeteries. He said that in larger metropolitan areas, there are some instances where families will bury their loved ones, on top of existing graves. According to Victor, in certain countries, you rent a grave space. He said that in the case of Germany, the grave space cannot be allotted to your mother and father forever. He revealed that the grave authorities dig up the dead when the rent expires after a certain time and then put them elsewhere in a common grave usually.

Victor was asked other questions as well regarding the burial like whether morticians “really sew your mouth shut when you’re dead?” Victor said that the answer to this question is both yes and no. He said that the lips of dead people are generally not sewn because it would take a lot of time and fine detail to do that. Victor also explained the ways by which the mouth of the dead can be closed. According to him, there are two ways to do that; with the first one being, bringing the jawbone up with some needle and thread. In the second method, he said, “You would go up out of the nose, across the septum, back down and through the lip to pull the two ends together.” According to Victor, a needle injector is used to complete this procedure, which is sort of a piston and simply ties the wire together to hold the mouth in place.

Another user asked if it is legally permissible to turn a person into a life-sized doll after their death. Victor said that it is not allowed to do so.