La. Monks Sue State Over Casket Sales

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human_being said:
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081205586.html

NEW ORLEANS – An order of Benedictine monks in Louisiana wants to sell simple cypress caskets to help make ends meet, but the monks say the funeral industry is thwarting their efforts.more…
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There are several monasteries that manufacture caskets and ship them around the country to customers. Use them as storage chests - “until the Need arises.”

Typical reaction by funeral directors. There have been books written about the avarice and monopoly practices in the industry. Betcha, though, that those people would assure you that they’re all for free enterprise.
 
This is outrageous. Clearly, it is a situation of an industry trying to preserve unjustified economic privileges which state law has given them.

A longer, and more informative article can be found at the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/08/st_joseph_abbey_battles_state.html
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Complaints about the monks’ operation surfaced. The cease-and-desist order from the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors was followed by a formal complaint to the board from Mothe Funeral Home, which argued that the Abbey’s “illegal third-party casket sales place funeral homes in an unfavorable position with families.”
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In other words, the funeral industry has been gouging the public, and resent competition which might force them to lower prices.
New Orleans Times-Picayune:
According to Louisiana law, no one at the abbey can sell any “receptacles … where human remains are … placed for disposition” without paying an application fee, taking classes, passing an exam and serving an apprenticeship that is a “primary form of employment” to earn a funeral director’s license.

The monks would then need to redesign the Abbey into a traditional funeral parlor equipped with embalming equipment and staffed by embalmers licensed by the state regulatory board
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There simply is no need for all that folderol. Our local Cistercian monastery has been making caskets for years, selling them across the nation. There haven’t been any problems with the quality of their work.
trappistcaskets.com/

Demand for the work of these Trappists exceeded all expectations, but sadly the vocations shortage has forced the monks to hire outside help to keep up with orders:
americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov2004/Feature2.asp#top
(scroll to the last article on the page, its a good article)
 
The mark up on caskets is astronomical, and the funeral homes don’t want to lose that revenue.

I can see where this will end up in Federal Court (and it should)

The Federal Trade Commission has the Federal Funeral Rule which states:
Code: 
*  you have the right to choose the funeral goods and services you want (with some     ]exceptions).
* the funeral provider must state this right in writing on the general price list.
* if state or local law requires you to buy any particular item, the funeral provider must disclose it on the price list, with a reference to the specific law.
* the funeral provider may not refuse, or charge a fee, to handle a casket you bought elsewhere.
* a funeral provider that offers cremations must make alternative containers available.
 
If you have five minutes to spare, do an Google search on mail-order casket prices. Then, hit the site of any funeral home that posts its prices. The difference is stunning; we are talking several thousand dollars. This is a case of an industry that has gotten a compliant legislature to protect a major profit center, using the force of law to ward off competition.
 
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