What to do if family refuses to accept responsibility for deceased's body....

[Ruas61]

I was not directly involved in this adventure but the whole thing got me to wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they (or their facility) handled it.

This weekend we had a resident die. It was not an unexpected death but the event occurred a bit sooner than expected. Anyways, the family was notified of the event but had no wishes to come to our facility. Unfortunately, no mortuary had been designated. The family declined to name one because they did not wish to be responsible for the bill.

In the end, after 12 hours, the family committed to cremation society which is the most frugal option available.

Anyone have anything similar occur in their career or facility?

[TimothyD]

No posts on this thread in a while, but I found this searching for information. Funerals are for the living, so if people want to pay unnecessary fees and pay for celebrating someone's life, great. I am a single male who has no desire for anyone to pay any expenses for when I die. I have told anyone who may feel a responsibility to claim and/or pay for my body when I die, not to do so. I didn't pay to come into the world, and I'm not paying to leave. I understand how people who live more conventional, or perhaps religious, lives may not like this. But .... I think for me it is most reasonable option. Whether a medical school, oa random funeral home, or a potter's field ends up with me, that's fine. It doesn't matter.

[JBudd, MSN]

You could make it easier on everybody, to just designate ahead of time to donate your body.

If you really don't care, but there are people you care enough to have told not to bother paying for anything, it would at least give some directions.