Embalmers and American Death Fears

Well today I was thinking about things that people object to that stay mostly hidden from the public eye. There was something that I read earlier today that was about mortuaries and embalming. It was strange reading about the process of embalming and restorative art. It is also quite disturbing. I mean the process itself can even involve dislocating the "remain's" jaw in order to position it in a way that it will look best. All of the processes are kept from thed public in case they change their minds about the embalming. Coffins are no longer coffins because of it's bad connotation but rather caskets. The same goes for corpse. It is amazing how scared Americans are about looking at a dead body that looks dead. Foreigners ost likely feel afraid of seeing a dead person look so alive they could sit up from the casket and began to talk as if they were only asleep. It is very very disturbing. I was also thinking about the parallel the author draws on hospitals. She compared the embalmer to a surgeon. It is really ironic if you really think about it because a surgeon cuts a person up to preserve life whereas an embalmer cuts a person up to preserve death. Why are open-casket funerals so important to Americans? I don't know and I'm not sure if I will find that one out quickly. It would take a bit of research. On th other hand, my randomness seems to have left me all of a sudden so I won't be able to successfully find the information I'm looking for. Later then.