BMS Funeral Directing and Rites 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A family from a Jewish Orthodox tradition requests burial. Which practice is most important for the funeral director to accommodate?
- Playing recorded music during the service
- Ensuring burial occurs as soon as possible after death (Correct answer)
- Providing a cremation urn as an alternative
- Scheduling a lengthy embalming process
Correct answer: Ensuring burial occurs as soon as possible after death
Orthodox Jewish tradition requires prompt burial, ideally within 24 hours of death, and generally prohibits embalming and cremation.
Question 2: During a funeral arrangement conference, a widow asks to use a casket purchased from an online retailer. The funeral home must:
- Refuse the casket if it lacks their brand label
- Charge a handling fee but cannot refuse to use it (Correct answer)
- Refuse the casket for liability reasons
- Require the family to sign a casket waiver form
Correct answer: Charge a handling fee but cannot refuse to use it
Under the FTC Funeral Rule, a funeral home cannot refuse to use a third-party casket but may charge a reasonable handling fee.
Question 3: What is the role of the funeral director during a viewing when a family member becomes emotionally distraught?
- Immediately call emergency services
- Offer empathetic support and connect them with available grief resources (Correct answer)
- Ask them to step outside to avoid disturbing other attendees
- Proceed with the service and allow them to compose themselves privately
Correct answer: Offer empathetic support and connect them with available grief resources
Funeral directors are trained in aftercare and grief support, and should empathetically assist the distressed individual while connecting them with appropriate resources.
Question 4: Which type of disposition involves placing cremated remains in a sealed niche in a wall structure at a cemetery or mausoleum?
- Scattering
- Inurnment in a columbarium (Correct answer)
- Green burial
- Ossuary interment
Correct answer: Inurnment in a columbarium
A columbarium is a structure with individual niches designed to hold urns with cremated remains.
Question 5: What document grants permission for the removal and disposition of a deceased person's body?
- Certificate of Death
- Burial transit permit (Correct answer)
- Authorization for embalming
- Death registration form
Correct answer: Burial transit permit
A burial transit permit (also called a disposition permit) legally authorizes the transport and final disposition of human remains.
Question 6: In a Hindu funeral tradition performed in the United States, which disposition method is most commonly expected by the family?
- Earth burial with a headstone
- Green burial in a natural preserve
- Cremation with ashes scattered in a body of water (Correct answer)
- Mausoleum entombment
Correct answer: Cremation with ashes scattered in a body of water
Hindu tradition traditionally mandates cremation, and ashes are ideally scattered in a sacred river or body of water.
Question 7: Which term describes a funeral service held days, weeks, or months after disposition has already taken place?
- Graveside service
- Memorial service (Correct answer)
- Celebration of life
- Committal service
Correct answer: Memorial service
A memorial service is a service without the body present, often held after the remains have already been buried or cremated.
BMS Funeral Directing and Rites 3
A family from a Jewish Orthodox tradition requests burial.
Which practice is most important for the funeral director to accommodate?