Planning for Burial or Cremation

After a loved one's death, you'll need to make cremation or burial arrangements, and usually funeral arrangements as well, if your loved one didn't make them ahead of time.

Selecting a funeral home, also known as a mortuary, is often the first task. If your loved one passed away at home or in the hospital, you'll be asked to specify a funeral home where the body will be transferred. After you contact the funeral home, they'll arrange to come take the body.

Before you begin planning a funeral, check whether your loved one made any arrangements or communicated any wishes regarding their body or memorial; these may be noted in their will. You'll also want to find out whether they established a pre-need funeral trust to cover the costs.

Decedent Affairs Program

UCSF Health's Patient Relations team coordinates the Decedent Affairs Program, which provides guidance during this difficult time and acts as a liaison between your family and outside agencies. The program also helps with arrangements and necessary paperwork.

If you have questions or need help, please reach out to the program's staff.

Autopsy, organ donation and medical research donation

Your loved one's doctor may discuss having an autopsy performed. Information gathered through autopsy can be useful to families or help bring them closure, particularly if the cause of death was unclear or the loved one may have had a hereditary disease.

In accordance with federal law, you may also be approached to discuss the possibility of organ or tissue donation. You can trust that donors' bodies are treated with dignity and care.

Some people choose to donate their bodies to a medical research institution. These donations are integral to a wide range of educational, scientific and clinical pursuits, including research and anatomy instruction. People with certain conditions can't donate their bodies to research. The UCSF Willed Body Program can provide information on this and on the option to donate.

If your loved one's body will be donated to medical research, please be sure to notify UCSF Patient Relations as well.

Feel free to ask our team any questions you have when working through these decisions.

Choosing a funeral home

Some families and religious communities have an established relationship with a particular funeral home. If this isn't the case for you, a friend or relative may be able to recommend one. You can also call or meet with directors from several funeral homes to compare services and prices. We've listed some Bay Area funeral homes and cremation services at the end of this article.

Family members typically go to the funeral home to meet with the director in person. It may be helpful to bring a friend, relative or another adviser with you, as some of the decisions may be challenging.

If you can't go to the funeral home or don't want to, some funeral homes will accept online arrangements or send the director to the hospital to meet with you. Please contact individual funeral homes directly to see whether this is possible.

To help the funeral home director prepare the death certificate, you'll need to provide the following:

• Name of the deceased
• Date and place of birth
• Social security number
• Father's full name and place of birth
• Mother's full name and place of birth

You can also obtain death certificates from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. For more information, see Practical Tasks Following a Death.

Planning a funeral

When you meet with the funeral director, you'll decide on details, such as the casket, grave liner (support structure for the casket), flowers and music.

You may also need to decide:

• Who will officiate
• Readings and music
• Who will offer eulogies
• Who will serve as pallbearers, if needed
• Clothing for the deceased
• Whether to request charitable donations in lieu of flowers

It's helpful to have a good sense of what you want before speaking with the funeral director. Friends and family can serve as sounding boards as you consider elements of the service.

Usually this meeting also provides an opportunity to write an obituary, so it might be useful to decide in advance whether you want one and, if so, what you want to include.

Burial and cremation options

Aside from a traditional burial, options include:

• Environmentally friendly burial. "Green" or natural burial usually means there is no embalming or vault and a biodegradable casket or shroud is used.
• Columbarium facilities. A columbarium is a building that houses many urns containing burial ashes.
• Cremation. Because of the paperwork involved, it can take one to two weeks for cremation to occur. The funeral home will discuss options for a cremation container with you. The ashes will be returned to you or you can arrange for them to be scattered at sea.

Burial costs

Although funeral home charges vary, the cost of a burial can total several thousand dollars, including charges for their services, the casket and the plot. There may also be charges for a burial vault or grave liner, flowers and other items. You may want to contact more than one funeral home to compare prices.

Bay Area funeral homes and cremation services

We've listed some funeral homes and cremation resources for your convenience. This list is not comprehensive and we do not endorse any particular business.

• College Chapel Mortuary
• Driscoll's Valencia Street Serra Mortuary
• Duggan's Funeral Service
• Fernwood Cemetery and Funeral Home
• Grace Cathedral Church columbarium
• Neptune Society
• Pacific Interment
• Sinai Memorial Chapel
• Sullivan's and Duggan's Serra Funeral Services