Embalming is the way of removing the organs that give off the harmful microbes in order the slow the decomposition of the body and also to preserve the body for funeral services or other functions, people or rather family of the deceased choose to embalm the deceased for various reasons such as to spend more time seeing the face of the deceased and to make the body of deceased viewable during the funeral. The embalming of the deceased body helps to give off the impression that the deceased has passed unto glory, this helps a lot to the family of the deceased because it gives them an assurance that the deceased is a better place. Embalming helps to slow down the primary stage of decay. Embalming is totally draining the body fluids that circulate the body and replacing them with preservative chemicals such as phenol.
Embalming solutions is a mixture of some very toxic chemicals such as phenol, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, methanol and ethanol and colourants is used to make the person appearing physically. People usually think that some organs of the body are removed during embalming and that is why they reject body embalmment but it’s not so, even though ancient Egypt practised the removal of organs which are vital and preserving them but it is not so today. Organs are removed only on the basis of organ donation to another human.
The embalmment is of two types, which include: The arterial embalmment: has to do with the removal of fluid from the arteries and veins and replacing it with the preservative fluids. And the second one is the cavity embalmment which has to do with the removal of fluids from the abdominal and chest region using a suction machine and replacing it with the embalming solution.
There are various things that occur if the body is not embalmed. Things that occur include:
- The shutdown of the brain and the tissue in the brain begin to release water.
- The vital organs follow suit, organs include the digestive organs, respiratory organs and the reproductive organ
- The harmful microbes found in the gut region begin to feed on the gut and slowly move to other parts of our body.
- From moving to other parts of the body, the release toxic gases which include ammonia and hydrogen sulphide which makes the body to bloat and swell. So if the body is not embalmed it begins to blat and smell and the microbes also feed on other parts of the body, thereby making the body of the deceased to be unappealing to the eyes.
