Aquamation is illegal, or simply unavailable, in roughly 21 states because most state disposition laws were written around burial and flame cremation and haven’t been updated to list alkaline hydrolysis as an accepted method. In the 29 states where it is legal, legislatures explicitly added the process to their statutes. Everywhere else, a funeral provider can’t legally offer a service their licensing law doesn’t recognize, even if no one is actively trying to ban it. Religious objections, funeral-industry lobbying, and wastewater questions explain why those updates have been slow to pass in the holdout states.
Old Statutes Are the Main Barrier
Every state regulates how human remains can be handled, and in most of the holdout states the governing statute lists the acceptable methods of disposition without mentioning alkaline hydrolysis. When the list doesn’t include it, providers are locked out. This is true whether lawmakers oppose the process or have simply never gotten around to it.
The barrier is often legislative bandwidth rather than moral outrage. State legislatures juggle thousands of bills per session, and a niche change to funeral-services law doesn’t always reach the floor. Bills get introduced, sit in committee, and die when no one pushes hard enough to move them through both chambers. States that have authorized the process use varying terminology, calling it alkaline hydrolysis, cremation, chemical disposition, or dissolution, which gives you some sense of how piecemeal the drafting has been.
A smaller number of states have considered legalization bills and rejected them. The practical result for a family is the same either way. If your state’s statute doesn’t list aquamation, no funeral home there can legally perform it.
Religious Objections
Religious opposition has stalled aquamation bills in several states, and the most prominent institutional voice is the Catholic Church. In March 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine issued a formal statement concluding that alkaline hydrolysis and human composting “fail to satisfy the Church’s requirements for proper respect for the bodies of the dead.”1United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. U.S. Bishops’ Doctrine Committee Issues Statement on the Proper Disposition of Bodily Remains The bishops’ concern is that most of the body dissolves into liquid treated as wastewater, leaving nothing meaningful to be interred in a sacred place. The Church applies a similar interment requirement even to flame cremation ashes.
That position carries weight in state capitals with large Catholic populations, where bishops and parish networks can mobilize opposition during committee hearings. Other faith traditions have raised similar concerns, though few have issued formal institutional statements. For many opponents the discomfort is visceral rather than theological. The idea of a loved one’s remains going down a drain feels different from receiving an urn of ashes, even when the science says the liquid is sterile.
Funeral Industry Lobbying
Parts of the funeral industry have actively lobbied against aquamation legislation. The resistance tends to come from businesses with financial stakes in traditional methods, including casket manufacturers, cremation equipment companies, and their trade associations, rather than from funeral directors as a whole. In Indiana, a state legislator who also served as president of a national casket supply association worked to block aquamation bills, a conflict of interest that drew public criticism.
The economic logic is simple. Aquamation doesn’t require a casket, doesn’t require embalming, and uses different equipment than flame crematories. Providers who have invested in traditional cremation infrastructure treat it as competition. Industry resistance is real but not unanimous, and a growing number of funeral homes are adding aquamation in states where it is legal, treating it as a service expansion rather than a threat.
Wastewater and Water-Use Questions
Even sympathetic legislators sometimes hesitate over what happens to the liquid afterward. A single aquamation cycle produces roughly 100 gallons of effluent that enters the municipal sewer system. The liquid is sterile and biodegradable, but local wastewater authorities in some jurisdictions have raised questions about pH, volume, and permitting.
In practice, plants that have accepted the effluent report that its nutrient content benefits treatment. The pH is adjusted before discharge, and facilities typically need a pretreatment permit from the local sewer authority, which is a regulatory step some states haven’t figured out how to codify. In drought-prone regions, lawmakers have also raised water-consumption concerns, though the file notes aquamation uses far less water overall than the manufacturing and maintenance demands of a traditional burial.
What You Can Do If Your State Doesn’t Allow It
Transporting remains to a state where aquamation is legal is possible, though it adds logistics and cost. You will need a burial transit permit from the originating jurisdiction, a certified death certificate, and a receiving funeral home in the destination state willing to take custody. Some states require embalming before remains can cross state lines by common carrier, which adds expense and a step that families choosing aquamation for environmental reasons may find counterproductive.
The shipping funeral home typically coordinates everything, including airline transport over longer distances. Airlines generally require the shipping provider to hold a TSA “known shipper” designation. Between transportation fees, permits, and coordination between two funeral homes, cross-state aquamation can add $1,000 or more to the total. Pre-arranging with a provider in a legal state while you are still healthy is simpler and cheaper than having your family navigate it under time pressure.
One boundary worth noting. The FTC’s Funeral Rule, which requires providers to give you an itemized price list, applies to aquamation providers the same as it does to anyone else. If a provider in a legal state quotes you a bundled price, you can ask for the itemization.
Where the Law Is Heading
The direction is toward broader legalization. The count of authorizing states has grown from a handful a decade ago to 29 today, with bills pending in several of the remaining states, and new states were added in 2024 and 2025. Consumer demand is the primary driver. As more people learn about aquamation and ask funeral providers about it, providers push their state legislators to authorize it.
The opposition isn’t disappearing. Religious objections remain sincere, but they argue against choosing aquamation personally rather than against making it legally available. Industry resistance weakens each time a major funeral chain adds aquamation to its offerings. The wastewater concerns have been addressed by years of operational track record in states where the process is established. In most holdout states the likely outcome is not permanent prohibition but a legislative session in which the bill finally gathers enough support to pass.