State says Ohio funeral home can't liquefy bodies

COLUMBUS (AP) — The state won’t allow an Ohio funeral director to continue using a cremation alternative that liquefies bodies.

Jeff Edwards and his Edwards Funeral Service in Columbus use heat and lye to turn body tissue into liquid that goes into the sewers. The bones are crushed, and the fragments are given to the family.

The National Funeral Directors Association tells The Columbus Dispatch the alkaline-hydrolysis process is greener and cheaper than cremation. Association spokeswoman Jessica Koth says funeral homes in several states are seeking to offer the procedure.

But the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors and the state Department of Health say burial and cremation are the only approved methods for disposing of a body in Ohio. Edwards says he plans to sue.