I want to urge you all to keep up the emails and phone numbers.  I have posted senators' names on our webpage too - and also getting to the Governor will be key.

Apart from unnecessary prescriptions around families' access to the bodies of dead loved-ones, the title protection requirement for the term funeral director is really what will affect this movement to bring greener and alternative options such as home funeral services.  The Department of Regulatory agencies did not recommend title protection in its last review of the funeral industry in 2007.  This has been slipped in as a protective measure to ensure that anyone entering the profession subscribe to practices such as embalming (experience required in order to qualify for registration - registration is being introduced - and that, in itself, is not such a bad thing).  Taking the national funeral board exam is also a way to entrench practices.  

This is a stealth measure to squash alternative competition that will stop the provision of simple, low cost, greener alternatives that threaten big funeral business.

Coalition against HB1202 wants task force

A group including those hoping to introduce natural burial options in Colorado is working towards persuading legislators to table HB 1202.  This bill needs a major overhaul and a task force that can consider the implications of changes.  It is not in the interest of the green and home funeral movement to do this in haste.  Nancy Todd has called a meeting of funeral directors who drafted the bill and those who oppose the bill on March 18 at 3Pm and although this will be an opportunity to air concerns and viewpoints, we do not believe it is a suitable forum for negotiation.   

Regulatory agency report from 2007 recommends no licensing

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA - Sunrise Review of the Funeral Service Practitioner.  Dec 6. 2007

This makes illuminating reading and comes via the Funeral Consumers' Society of Colorado informational sheet on last year's licensing bill attempt.

This is from the FCSC document.

Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) recently investigated the need for licensing the funeral industry.  This was done at the request of the funeral industry itself, for the second time in six years.  DORA again concluded that 

(FROM THE DORA REPORT ACCORDING TO THE FSCS) 

"no evidence was presented that demonstrated that Colorado practitioners lacked competency, skills or education to warrant an increase in regulatory oversight through a licensure program."  

FCSC document further states "DORA found no need for formal licensing and instead recommended mere registration."

Colorado Funeral Bill HB 1202

Funeral Bill HB 1202 does not bode well for the movement to create personal, green, and affordable funeral care options for funeral families.  We in Natural Transitions, our board members, our many client families, and our supporters need to keep the faith, maintain an open heart, and believe that lawmakers will choose to preserve rights and resources that allow families to care for their own dead.  It's time to speak out, if you care.  Lisa Carlson, who founded the Funeral Ethics Organization is a champion of funeral rights for the consumer.  She's putting in her two cents about this bill.  The Funeral Consumers Alliance thinks this is a very bad bill for the consumer.  Surely the voices of these organizations will illuminate the dire implications for Colorado families if this bill passes?  In service.