Removing limbs or feet is a technique used sometimes. The point is to make the body look good above the waist in an open casket. Also mortuaries do a lot more than just that.

for instance, the head is embalmed separately from the rest of the body, so every dead body you've seen at a funeral has had its head cut off and sewn back on, or put on a pvc pipe or something. I've even heard of mortuaries using duct tape. Also if a body has been completely decimated and will be difficult to reassemble, the mortuary term for where they get placed is a "disaster pouch." Also if the body had an autopsy, the organs will have been removed, then put into a bag. The bag is often simply sewn back into the ribcage without consideration for where they actually go, so the organs end up together as a big lump sewn back into the ribcage

I'm sorry to tell you all of this. One side of my family works in the funeral business (they're preachers and funeral directors, stuff like that) so I've heard everything. Honestly so much of this seems so much of a hassle that you're right. People should just get cremated.

[–] the_itsb@hexbear.net 2 points 11 months ago

Whew. Well! Gonna try to stuff all that down the memory hole, otherwise idk if I'll ever attend another funeral that involves a casket because I won't be able to stop thinking about the duct tape and the jumbled bag. 😂🤦 jfc!