U.C.L.A. is the only place in California that liquefies the dead. But after five years and hundreds of bodies processed, Dean Fisher, director of the university’s Donated Body Program, hopes to change that. He has been working with state legislators on a bill allowing funeral homes to use this process, called alkaline hydrolysis. The state Senate has until September 15 to consider the legislation, which has already sailed through California’s lower house with a vote of 71 to 3. “The science says this technology is safe and has environmental benefits,” Fisher says. If California approves the new death rite, it would join a club that includes parts of Canada and several U.S. states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Wyoming.

But this means of final disposition crosses uncomfortable lines for some. Consider the case of Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus, Ohio, which started offering alkaline hydrolysis in 2011: Owner Jeff Edwards dissolved 19 corpses before the Ohio Department of Health suddenly stopped granting permits for the process, and the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors accused him of “immoral or unprofessional conduct.” A messy legal battle left him with $150,000 worth of equipment that is gathering dust, he says. He now transports bodies across state lines, to Chicago, for the procedure.