Funeral Directors Want To Burn Corpses To Heat Churches

[matcom]

<snip>

Is it sacrilegious to keep churchgoers warm and toasty in their pews by using the heat from cremated bodies? The national crematorium trade association didn't think so and sought permission from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs to redistribute the heat generated by the nation's 33 crematoria to nearby churches.

Some 40,000 Danes are cremated each year in natural gas-fired ovens at temperatures reaching nearly 1000° C. The heat is released into the atmosphere, but the trade association argued that pumping the heat they generate could help bring down the heating bill in Copenhagen and other cities.

'Instead of just letting the heat out the window, we can use it to warm up church buildings. Maybe we could even sell some of it,' Allan Vest, the association's president, told daily newspaper Nyhedsavisen.

The national Council of Ethics considered the case and recommended that the ministry allow crematoria to recycle the heat.

'We do not feel reusing the heat from crematoria involves any major ethical problems,' Ole Hartling, the head of the council, wrote to the Ministry. 'We have primarily noted the environmental aspect of the case, but we do not feel using the heat defiles the corpses in any way, since they are already incinerated.'

The minister of ecclesiastical affairs, Bertel Haarder, said that although he was in favour of the idea himself, he would not force crematoria to refit their incinerators so they also could supply heat.

'We have enough rules as it is, so I won't force this issue through,' he said. 'But I will recommend it. I'm quite pleased with the council's decision.'

http://www.cphpost.dk/get/99126.html

[kedrys]

1. Hey, if we're gonna recycle, let's get @*#$ing serious

That's what I'm here to tell ya.