Oregon Funeral Resources & Education
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  • How To
    • Get Help Now
    • Learn the Law
    • Have a Home Funeral
    • Perform Body Care
    • Complete Paperwork
    • Arrange Disposition
    • Transport the Dead
    • Create Ceremony
    • Go Out Greener
    • Pay for a Funeral
    • Work with Professionals
  • Learn More
    • Resources for Professionals
    • Tools for Community Education
    • Books, Articles, Organizations
    • Glossary
    • Sample Forms
    • Media Kit
    • Pandemic Care Guide >
      • Pandemic Care Guide
      • Practical Guidelines
      • Ceremony Resources
      • Articles
      • Covid-19 FAQs
    • FAQs
  • Stories
    • Read Their Stories
    • Max's Story
    • David's Story
    • Mark's Story
    • Karen's Story
    • Jamie's Story
    • Marcy's Story
    • Kim's Story
    • Bill's Story
    • Vera Luna's Story
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Welcome to Oregon Funeral Resources & Education

We are dedicated to providing Oregonians with information about their legal rights and available resources when death occurs. Whether you’re anticipating a death through illness or age, or wanting to be prepared with the facts knowing death can come at any time, this website is designed to enable you and your community to be better equipped to provide meaningful, hands-on care for the dead—what is commonly called a "home funeral".

Making Oregon Home Funeral Information Easy to Find

In Oregon, no one is required to purchase the services of a funeral director or funeral home. Families may conduct any or all tasks commonly performed by a funeral home (except embalming which is not required by Oregon law), and may bury on their own property if certain provisions are met. Sometimes called "family-led after-death care" or "home funerals" this may include:
  • bathing and dressing the deceased; 
  • sheltering the deceased at home;
  • spending time with the deceased (sometimes called a wake, vigil, or viewing);
  • filing the death certificate and obtaining a burial/transit permit;
  • making arrangements for final disposition (generally burial or cremation);
  • transporting the body home (or to another location) for care and viewing, and to place of final disposition;
  • making arrangements for any ceremony. ​​

Finding Your Way

While some families entrust all of these arrangements to paid professionals, or choose to forgo everything except for a simple cremation, many families find ourselves looking for more affordable, meaningful and authentic ways of memorializing and caring for our dead ourselves, in our own homes, in our places of worship, and in our communities, including more eco-friendly practices.

This website is for anyone wishing to explore the continuum of death care options, including home funerals, home burial, green burial, or simply purchasing only the products and services really wanted and needed.​
​
Our goal is to empower individuals, families, friends, communities, and professionals to make decisions about death care, final disposition, and funerals based on knowledge, not simply by default.

​For many, that will mean learning how to conduct what’s called a home funeral; for others, it will mean searching for a funeral director who will honor their unique ideas; for still others it will mean advocating for change in your local cemetery, hospital, and government laws and policies.


If you are one of those looking for answers, this site is designed to walk you through the practical “How Tos” of whichever aspects of after-death care you want to handle, including how to get what you want from any professionals you hire. You’ll find quick links to get assistance, a glossary of terms, and informative stories of how others have cared for their dead.
PicturePhoto courtesy of Joni Kabana, ®All Rights Reserved
Because so many helping professionals are unfamiliar with family- and community-directed care for the dead, we’ve included professional education materials and resources for use in community education.

As Max's story illustrates, any family can encounter the barrier of uninformed professionals. Communities of Black, Indigneous, and other People of Color may also encounter barriers in both healthcare and death care systems created by discriminatory practices or implicit racial bias. See our Resources section for more on the impact of systemic racism on death care.)

​It is our hope that the resources of this website equip you, and more families and community advocates, to dismantle the barriers to meaningful and respectful family-led care for the dead.

Picture

Learn How To:

Perform Body Care
Complete Paperwork
Arrange Disposition
Transport the Dead
Create Ceremony
Go Out Greener
Work with Professionals
​
Pay For a Funeral

Learn About:

How to Get Help
Oregon Funeral Law
Professional Education
Community Education
Home Funeral Resources
FAQs
​Glossary of Terms
Stories
Oregon Funeral Resources and Education 
oregonfuneral@gmail.com
Contact
Picture
Landscape photos courtesy of
​Joni Kabana
www.jonikabana.com
All Rights Reserved
Oregon Funeral Resources and Education is a non-commercial public interest site dedicated to helping Oregon consumers care for their own dead with or without the assistance of a funeral director. All rights reserved  © FuneralPartnership.org
  • Home
  • How To
    • Get Help Now
    • Learn the Law
    • Have a Home Funeral
    • Perform Body Care
    • Complete Paperwork
    • Arrange Disposition
    • Transport the Dead
    • Create Ceremony
    • Go Out Greener
    • Pay for a Funeral
    • Work with Professionals
  • Learn More
    • Resources for Professionals
    • Tools for Community Education
    • Books, Articles, Organizations
    • Glossary
    • Sample Forms
    • Media Kit
    • Pandemic Care Guide >
      • Pandemic Care Guide
      • Practical Guidelines
      • Ceremony Resources
      • Articles
      • Covid-19 FAQs
    • FAQs
  • Stories
    • Read Their Stories
    • Max's Story
    • David's Story
    • Mark's Story
    • Karen's Story
    • Jamie's Story
    • Marcy's Story
    • Kim's Story
    • Bill's Story
    • Vera Luna's Story
  • Blog
  • Contact