Here are a few intriguing facts about death and burial:

• Embalming is not required by law in Oregon unless the body in question is traveling across state lines or, in some cases, if that body expired as the result of a communicable disease.

• Most morticians do not choose to be embalmed themselves after they die.

• Oregon law requires bodies that are not buried or embalmed after 24 hours to be refrigerated at 36 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

• The average retail cost of a casket is 2 and a half to five times the wholesale cost.

• It is a violation of federal law for any funeral home to charge a handling fee when a family provides their own casket for the body of their deceased.

• Caskets are not required by law, though many cemeteries do require them.

• Sealed vaults and caskets do not help to preserve a body once it has been interred. In fact they often impede the natural decomposition process.

• If someone chooses to donate their body to medical science, they can arrange to have their cremated remains returned to their family.

• After a body has been cremated, what is left behind is not ashes, but pulverized bone fragments.

• Costs of cemetery, crematory or funeral services and merchandise are not regulated by the State or Federal Trade Commission.

• There is no law in Oregon prohibiting burial on private property.

• A recent AARP poll asked: "Which type of burial is most appealing?" Only 8% wanted a traditional cemetery burial and only 18% chose cremation. 70.4% of those polled through the AARP Web site chose green burial.

Sources: The Funeral Consumers Alliance, Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board and greenburials.org