Death is not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for, thou art does not see, for, those, whom thou thinkest, thou dost overthrow. Die not, poor death no yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but the pictures be. This is a poem written by Jon Donne. The body of the deceased should be embalmed with 46-48 hours of death. This is due to fact that the time of death to the time of funeral differs in various states and countries. In the USA it takes 3-7 days while in countries like Nigeria you can do it when convenient. Many persons may want the funeral to occur within a week in order for the body to be in life. Like condition while the rest would want to delay because:
- The family members or relatives of the deceased might not be disposed a few weeks after the time’s date and stipulated date for the funeral services.
- My sister’s friend had to delay the burial of her mom because she was heavily pregnant and couldn’t make any arrangements for the burial.
- Maybe the deceased or the deceased family want to act as an organ donor to save another. So immediately after the death of the deceased. The organs are quickly removed and then preserved.
- If the death of the deceased happened suddenly and the family wants to know what caused the death, all that is needed to do is to conduct an autopsy.
There is not a rule that says that a body must be held for a particular time before the burial/cremation services can take place, but some countries made a rule that body cannot be cremated within 48-72 hours after the death of deceased. Most countries do embalming but are advisable to bury an unembalmed body immediately after the death or cremated within a stipulated time. But in States in the USA it is advisable for a deceased that died from an infection should be embalmed before the funeral rites are begun.
As to how long after death can a body be viewed. A body can be viewed depends on whether it is embalmed or not embalmed. If it is embalmed it can be viewed for up to 3-5 months because that way, the decomposition processes are delayed and the body can still be presentable but if it is unembalmed then it can only be viewed for 2-3 days because decomposition occurs for 2-3 days and the microbes cause bloating and smelling of the deceased body which makes viewing very much impossible.
