Although cremation is more environmentally friendly and reduces land use, the overall cost is still much cheaper than traditional burial. This, as well as the decline in nuclear families, is a major reason for the increasing preference in cremation. According to Mathisen, "As more Americans live far from hometowns and parents, and as family burial plots have waned in popularity and accessibility, millions have turned to cremation as a practical and cost-effective way to care for a loved one's remains. " Not only does the cost of a casket and burial cost around three times as much as a typical cremation, but the prices of getting plots of land for the burial of remains is constantly increasing as the land availability is diminishing or plots…show more content… While some of these religions have strict policies against this disposal form, others only disagree with it or suggest that it is unaccepted. It is possible for some of these religious people to receive cremations in certain circumstances if their religion only suggests that it is opposed to the practice. Most of these religions disagree with cremation for ideas of resurrection, believing that the body needs to stay intact for a diseased person to be reborn. Other religions base their beliefs on the ideas that a soul cannot be at peace without a proper burial or without the body remaining intact as well. Due to the multitude of people who would then refuse to be cremated based on these religious beliefs, it poses an argument against cremation replacing current primary disposal…show more content… – municipal government for town land, or the Department of Conservation and Recreation for a state park, etc.)
For this reason, it could be considered more efficient or easier for the state to mandate a burial rather than a cremation. There have been instances in the past that have caused concern relating to cremations. In certain areas within china, a mandatory cremation law was passed in order to conserve arable land. The issue with this law regards the elderly population, which "died in a last-minute rush to beat the time limit," according to local news reports and interviews with villagers quoted in a Los Angeles Times article by Jonathan Kaiman. Several families suffered at the loss of parents and grandparents who chose suicide over cremation before the policy was enforced. The idea of cremation acts against their beliefs of ancestor worship. It is stated that Beijing News tallied six elderly suicides across the municipality, some by drinking pesticide or jumping down a well; another killed herself after officials destroyed her coffin in front of her. Although these reports are clearly prevalent, Anqing officials have supposedly denied that the policy caused any deaths, and one particular villager, Wang Minghu, had claimed that, "the village government forced us to sign an agreement to say that my mother didn't die because of the funeral policy — that she died because
