Embalmer penalized for speaking ill of dead sues to get license back

posted at 2:00 pm on February 12, 2012 by Howard Portnoy

If a tree is embalmed in the forest… From the Associated Press (h/t James Taranto):

Troy Schoeller admits he could have chosen his words more carefully when he talked to a reporter about bodies he worked on as an embalmer at a funeral home.

Among a litany of graphic remarks Schoeller made was that he hates embalming fat people. He also described the body of a baby as a ‘bearskin rug’ and made other crude observations about the difficulties of his work.

After his comments were published in The Boston Phoenix, the state board that licenses funeral directors and embalmers revoked his license. Now Schoeller is challenging that punishment before the highest court in Massachusetts, arguing the revocation violates his constitutional right to free speech.

Schoeller’s argument turns on what is described as “a vague and overly broad provision of the code of conduct that prohibits funeral directors and embalmers from commenting on the condition of a body entrusted to their care.” His attorney, Jason Benzaken, observes that funeral directors and embalmers routinely talk about their work in trade journals and other publications to inform a curious public.

Curious public? I never thought of myself as an incurious person, but I could have probably lived out the rest of my days happily not knowing the details of Schoeller’s reconstruction of the baby that “looked like a bearskin rug” when it arrived in his hands:

I had to rebuild it in nine hours. I used everything: duct tape, masking tape, tissue builder, wound filler…. I put, like, coat hangers and caulk in there and put him into a little baby outfit…. He looked awesome.

Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General Sookyoung Shin also appears to be of a mind that Schoeller’s true confessions provide more information than most consumers of his services probably need. “Sensitivity, dignity, respect are at the very heart of this profession,” the AG said before the Supreme Judicial Court last month, adding:

If his comments are OK, then any funeral director or embalmer in the state would have license to go out and describe the types of bodies that he finds nasty or that he finds amusing.

Ultimately, I disagree with the state’s imprimatur on the licensing board’s decision to revoke Schoeller’s license. So evidently does Lisa Carlson, executive director of the Funeral Ethics Organization, who says that naming names of deceased “clients” is a code violation but that “just generally talking about fat people” is “just poor taste.”

The AP concludes by noting that the Supreme Judicial Court is expected to rule on the case within three months.

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