TOPEKA, Kan. When you die, do you want to be buried? Cremated?
How about being cryogenically frozen and then vibrated into tiny pieces? If you want to spend the hereafter in Kansas, you may eventually get the chance.
A new option called promession, the creation of a Swedish biologist, holds the potential to make burial more environmentally friendly, its proponents say. A body effectively reduced to small particles and buried would turn to soil in a matter of months.
While promession has yet to be tried on human remains only pigs have so far had the privilege the company pursuing the idea regards Kansas as fertile ground for the new method. So much so that the firm, Promessa, has one of its handful of U.S. representatives based in Overland Park.
In promession, the body is frozen using liquid nitrogen, then vibrated into particles. Water is removed from the particles, which are then freeze-dried. The remains are buried in a degradable coffin.
But in a legal opinion released just before Thanksgiving, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt found that promession doesnt meet the definition of cremation under Kansas law and regulation.
In cremation, the body is reduced to bone fragments and flesh is typically burned up by fire. In promession, both flesh and bone are reduced to particles. That difference is why the process does not legally count as cremation, according to Schmidt.
Interest has been growing in so-called green burials that minimize the environmental impact. A 2017 survey of more than 1,000 American adults 40 and older by the National Funeral Directors Association found 54% were interested in green memorialization options that could include biodegradable caskets and formaldehyde-free embalming.
Schmidt cautioned that a decision on whether promession is permissible under other state laws falls to the Kansas Board of Mortuary Arts. The boards executive secretary didnt respond to a request for comment.
Caldwell said Kansas is the first state where she has sought a formal legal opinion because of what she views as the states relatively lax cremation laws. For example, Kansas doesnt require fire to be used in cremation. Thats a helpful distinction because promession freezes bodies instead of burning them.
Caldwell asked her state representative, Overland Park Democrat Dave Benson, to seek the attorney generals opinion. Benson said Friday he wasnt surprised by Schmidts conclusions because in his experience, attorneys general are hesitant to provide new interpretations of law.
Benson suggested he may draft a bill to authorize promession because of interest in alternatives to traditional burial or cremation, and because hes taken a little bit of a libertarian view.
Promession has gained attention over the past decade, often when news outlets mention it as an alternative to traditional burial or cremation, said its creator, Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Masak.
Caldwell said shes optimistic it could be used on a human body in the United States within five years. Promessa hears from people all over the world who want to undergo the procedure when they die, she said.
Still, its likely to take a long time to turn promession into a reality.
