The median cost of cremation is only about $1,000 less.

Funeral Directors must present a general price list when asked, and options as low as $500 - for a direct cremation with no memorialization or embalming - should be available.

Your choice may adversely affect the environment.

Standard burial fills the Earth with hardwoods, metals, concrete and embalming fluid.

Cremation releases CO² and mercury (from dental fillings) into the atmosphere.

Alternate methods have little or no environmental downside.

Not all forms of interment have the same emotional impact.

Home Burial involves washing and dressing the body of the deceased. Cremation, in contrast, is almost never witnessed. How important is it to encourage a 'Sense of Closure?'

Not all religions support all forms of interment.

In fact, there's quite a lot of specificity.

For example, traditional Muslim and Jewish funerals require direct interment to the ground, without embalming, within 24 hours.

Hinduism requires cremation, whereas the Catholic Church only started allowing cremation in 1963.

Not all parts of the U.S. have the same options for interment.

Aquamation is only legal in 20 states, and is illegal in New Hampshire

Home Burial is illegal in only Washington, California, Indiana, and Washington D.C.

Less common options like human composting are currently in a legal state of flux.