Introduction of cremation would likely require facilities for storing DNA samples – experts

The introduction of cremation would likely require authorities to make provisions for storing DNA samples of the deceased, a number of experts told the parliamentary social affairs committee this evening.

The committee heard how as things stand, the court or police may from time to time need to exhume a body in order to obtain a DNA sample to be used in some case, and that any cremation policy would need to take this factor into account.

Committee members were briefed, and had their questions answered by Charmaine Camilleri, the Superintendent for Public Health, environmental health director Clive Tonna, Rev Rene Camilleri, and Raphael Axiak from the Planning.

Gauci said the superintendence was collecting as much information as it could on the potential impacts to public health, stressing that the main consideration would be estimating the impact of emissions emanated from a potential crematorium.

She insisted that in creating a functional policy, one needed to consider everything starting with the place of death, all the way through the conditions the body needed to be stored in once it arrived at the crematorium.

This, she said, included information on the cause of death, how the body would be transported to the crematorium, what training was required for those overseeing the process, to name a few.

Asked whether there were any specific gasses were emitted from a crematorium, Gauci explained that it would depend on the temperature at which the crematorium is operating.

Gauci also noted that considerations would have to be made for people who might have had foreign objects – as in the case of hip replacement - inserted into their body.

Malta would not need more than one

Tonna on his part said that with some 3,400 deaths in Malta annually, he did not believe that Malta would ever need more than one crematorium.

He explained that the practice was common abroad, even in cases where people may have had limbs amputated, or after a grave would have been cleaned.

He said that while most forms of crematoria used gas, and that while any crematorium would include a filter to trap as many emissions as possible, there needed to be proper record keeping, and a real-time checking of emissions monitoring any system.

Another issue discussed internally, he said, was where there court cases and magistrate would ask for a DNA sample from a person that has been buried, especially when it came to paternity.

Church has no problem with cremation

Camilleri said the church had no issue with cremation, adding that the practice had at a point started being used to “spite the church”. Despite this, he said that since the 60s, the church had accepted the practice and had no moral issues, only objecting to ashes being taken home or distributed anywhere other than a sacred location.  

“The church has its own beliefs and so even if someone is cremated, the ashes need to be stored in a sacred place, like a cemetery,” said Camilleri.

Moreover, he said that in cemeteries run by the church, once a certain amount of time passes, the graves are cleaned and no DNA would be able to be retrieved from them anyway.

Planning policy already in place

Architect Raphael Axiaq, speaking on behalf of the Planning Authority, explained that in drawing up a policy on cemeteries, the PA had also included a policy on crematoria, since the research had showed that in countries with limited space, they were a preferred option.

Axiak said that current policy did not exclude, or identify any ideal, location. He said that a crematorium could be set up in any cemetery provided that the necessary studies on emissions were carried out beforehand.

Finally, he pointed out that the current policy only allowed for ashes to be scattered at sea, and not on land.