Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?

(Who shall guard the guards themselves?)

Who shall guard the guards themselves? This is a

question which arises in many walks of life and applies

not just to soldiers and police officers, but to any

regulatory body. It is something that is of particular

concern with new industries and services which may

only be self-regulating or not regulated in any way at

all. People start off with an idea or a new way of doing

things and, before you know it, a huge movement has

developed and everyone is jumping onto the

bandwagon.

This was an issue that came up in Naturensbalm’s CEO

Charles Street’s interview with Funeral Radio recently.

Click here to listen, or visit www.funeralradio.com

Charles and Joe Shehee agreed that the Green and

Natural funeral industry is a very broad one with very

little regulation. One of the reasons for this is that the

words ‘green’ and ‘natural’ are generic rather than legal

terms. Anything can be described thus, with only tiny

alterations to what most people would call

‘manufactured’ or ‘industrial’. Indeed, Green or Natural

things may well be manufactured or industrial, whilst

also being what they claim.

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There is no definition because these are just words and

it is our interpretation of them that gives them

meaning.

In our view, Green and Natural things are ones that do

the minimum of harm both in their use and their

production. We can’t say zero harm – our world is full

of naturally harmful things – but we can say that a

Green or Natural product will have virtually no lasting

impact on the environment. So for example a Natural

Burial site will have a short term impact; the soil will be

disturbed, a body will be placed there and bare earth

pushed back over. But in the long term very little will

change and there will be no adverse effects. Of course,

if you wrap the body in linen, you will slightly increase

the level of change. A wicker coffin, perhaps more so.

A headstone – the impact is becoming more substantial,

though not harmful.

So how to regulate? And who should do it? Is it

necessary? Customers need to feel confident that they

are getting what they are paying for and the funeral

industry needs to be clear about its terms. Industry

standards need to be manageable for family firms as

well as big corporations. Regulation might help with

aspects of this, but there remain a lot of questions

about how to achieve it. Quis custodiet ipsos

custodies?

www.naturensbalm.com