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Pay your last respects, via Internet!

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DQW Bureau
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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.”

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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.”

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Source: Dataquest

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