Friday, August 9, 2019

The Food Liberation of NJ’s Funeral Homes


Did you know that “New Jersey is one of the few states in the country where [it’s] still illegal” to serve food and drink at funerals? I just found out because of a bill to lift the ban, which passed the state Senate 35-1 and the state Assembly 64-6, with only Governor Phil Murphy’s signature left to pass it. 

Who’d be against that? A few people. For example, 40-year funeral business veteran Art Hackett, that’s who. In a 7/28/2019 letter published in the NJ Star-Ledger, Hacket complained that “A funeral home is supposed to be a dignified setting where people can gather to respectively mourn and pay their respects to a beloved family member or friend,” not a place where you could find a person “sitting a few seats from the casket . . . munching on a sandwich or say, a slice of pizza.”

Seriously. Has Hackett ever actually been to a funeral home? He says it’s his business. Services are more often infused with a social atmosphere, with people chatting and catching up with acquaintances they haven’t seen in a long while. Still, “I certainly would not permit [food] if the service was for my family member,” Hackett says. Hinting at his real motive, Hackett asks, “And what about the funeral homes who haven’t the room to provide for food service?”

“I can’t believe that someone ever came up with this idea in the first place,” he concludes, calling on Murphy to veto the bill. I can’t believe anyone would have the audacity to write this letter. 

It is certainly Mr. Hackett’s right to “not permit this if the service was for my family member.” But by what right does he deny that choice to others? That’s what his support for maintaining the current legal food ban amounts to. That is immoral.

More egregious still is the implication in his question, “what about the funeral homes who haven’t the room to provide for food service?” Simple: They don’t provide food service. That’s no reason to deny other funeral homes and their customers their rights, effectively stifling competition through legal coercion. If a person is denied their rights because someone else doesn’t have the capacity to exercise the same right, then almost every right could be denied.

It is up to each funeral home operator and their customers, based on voluntary contract, to make decisions about food at funerals services. What they decide individually is none of the government’s business--and no business of busybodies like Art Hackett. 

This reminds me of NJ’s ban on self-serve at gas stations. Often, regulations are imposed on an entire industry for the harm-doing of a few of the industry's bad actors. Like self-serve gasolene, the funeral home food ban doesn’t even have that rationalization. Murphy should sign the bill. Anyway, even if he doesn’t, the legislature has more than enough votes to override the veto. It’s about time this ridiculous ban is lifted. 

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