Pay your last respects, via Internet!

After shopping for groceries, apparels, holidays, it is now the turn of

pay-per-view funerals to go live online, allowing mourners who cannot attend

services in person to pay their last respects via the Internet. Despite

criticism of the scheme as macabre, the company that launched the service,

Wesley Music, is planning to offer it to crematoria across the country; a

one-off payment of around $150 will be charged for access to a funeral webcast,

Reuters has reported.

Mourners use the password to access a live online broadcast of the funeral

service captured by a small camera mounted in the chapel. “Families are

dispersed across the world these days and sometimes it's the case that someone

cannot get home in time for a funeral,” says Alan Jeffrey, Director, Wesley

Music.

“For those who need it, this is a very important service. It means that

rather than being excluded, they can at least witness and be a part of a funeral

as it happens. In a time of stress, this is something that can ease the pain.”

David Powell, Funeral Directors Henry Powell and Son, Southampton, southern

England, said he had already tested the service during three funerals. He

insisted they remained private, intimate affairs despite being broadcast on the

Web.

“It's a personal thing. It doesn't go out for all and sundry to gawk at,” he

said. “There is a password for the family to send to people who want to watch

the feuneral online.” He said, mourners as far away as Australia and Canada have

already used the system. “The families have been absolutely delighted to be able

to share in the proceedings when it wasn't possible for them to get over here

and attend.”

Source: Dataquest