Mourning families are buried beneath morgue charges

By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 07:54

Grieving families are being overcharged by private morgues in Beijing that are often not qualified to carry out the services they provide, according to a report in Beijing News.

Quoting an unnamed hospital morgue worker, the newspaper said more than 100 private morgues attached to hospitals in the capital have formed close relationships with fewer than 10 funeral company operators.

The report said some unlicensed private morgue operators use the official accreditations of the established private funeral homes, paying between 100,000 yuan and 1 million yuan a year for the use of the documents.

The morgues also send the private funeral homes bodies for cremation and refer families to them for other services, according to the source.

The newspaper said morgues typically make their money back from mourners by then making their overpriced services compulsory, often charging grieving families 10 times the standard price authorized by civil affairs departments. A morgue can make, on average, 300,000 yuan in profit from the arrangement, said a funeral agent who asked to remain anonymous.

The story quoted a Fengtai district resident, surnamed Li, as saying he was compelled to pay 2,570 yuan after his father died for the morgue's storage of the body for two days. Typically, such a service should cost less than 300 yuan.

Li told the paper he was charged for items he had not purchased, including "talisman lotion", "golden hills and silver hills" and "pathway pennant". He said morgue managers later returned 1,355 yuan as "financial aid" and denied they had overcharged.

Another hospital morgue spokesperson said it charged a minimum of 3,000 yuan to store a body.

When asked if the price was unreasonable, the morgue manager said mourners would not quibble over charges if they cared about the deceased.

Beijing Funeral Associations said the overcharging problem was widespread because the funeral industry was not subject to any clear regulations or laws. Numerous departments are involved in the management and administration of the funeral industry, making it difficult to achieve standardization.