PA Funeral Directors Assoc. Condemns Breach Of Public Trust Committed By Sharing “Selfies” Of The Deceased
Harrisburg, PA (PRWEB) October 06, 2017 -- The Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association (PFDA) strongly condemned the alleged actions of a licensed director working in an East Stroudsburg funeral home. As reported in the Washington Post, the funeral director has been charged by the Monroe County District Attorney's Office with abuse of corpse and harassment. County detectives discovered that the funeral director’s cellphone contained “selfies” and other photos of the deceased. It’s alleged that the photos were shown to others by the funeral director.
SOURCE:https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/funeral-director-accused-of-taking-photos-facing-new-charges/2017/10/03/568830fc-a85d-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html?utm_term=.9e5df510bb72
Kathleen Ryan, PFDA Executive Director and General Counsel, condemned the unprofessional conduct. “The report of this type of conduct is very disturbing. As licensed funeral directors our utmost concern is the respectful treatment of the deceased. Taking pictures of bodies is a blatant violation of the public’s trust. It’s unfortunate that the misguided actions of one malingerer will stain the professional dedication of funeral directors across the Commonwealth.”
“PFDA has long advocated for our member funeral homes to establish and strictly enforce guidelines for photographing the deceased,” continued Ryan. “No photos should be taken of the deceased by the funeral home staff, unless it is necessary for identification purposes. In these instances, only licensed directors should be authorized to obtain photos, using a camera or cell phone, which is the property of the funeral home. No personal devices should ever be used for this purpose. Once the identification process has been completed all electronic versions of the image should be immediately and permanently deleted.”
Organized in 1881, the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association (PFDA) is one of the largest state funeral directors associations in the nation. Representing 1,200 member funeral homes and 3,500 licensed funeral directors, PFDA’s mission is to inform and educate the funeral director, the public and government about the value of funeral service and licensed funeral directors on a pre-need, at need and post-need basis. For more information visit http://www.pfda.org.
Anne Aufiero, AdAbility Marketing Communications, +1 (717) 737-1744, [email protected]
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