KEY POINTS:
"Cowboy" funeral directors who demand money before services are rendered, do shonky embalming jobs or take the wrong bodies from morgues are examples of shabby operators in the industry.
And the Funeral Directors' Association of New Zealand says some dodgy practices are likely to continue unless the Government legislates against sub-standard undertakers.
Association vice-president Tony Garing said an incident last month where a Hamilton undertaker took the wrong body from a Waikato Hospital morgue was "not the first and won't be the last".
The grieving family thought they had farewelled their mother but instead said goodbye to a man they had never met.
Other questionable practices include: a company swapping a man's casket for a cheaper model before he was cremated without telling his family and reports of "cellphone to stationwagon" operators where the body is left in the hospital mortuary until the day of the funeral.
"Basically anyone who can afford to lease a stationwagon and some premises can set themselves up as a funeral director but there are no checks and balances," said Mr Garing.
"There's no one governing how they practice or providing oversight, advice or professional development so without any training anyone can set themselves up and start operating as a funeral director."
About 70 per cent of all funeral directors belong to the FDANZ, which conducts about 85 per cent of all funerals. The push to legislate has been around for nearly 70 years.
"People can be starting funeral businesses with no real experience in how to deal with grieving people, no background in how to deal with funds and no training in providing proper hygienic care," Mr Garing said.
Former NZ Embalmers Association president David Parker supported the push for registration but said his previous attempts had been let down by the Government.
Mr Parker, who runs a funeral home in Gisborne, said he had to re-embalm a body after a botched job by another operator.
He said he put submissions to two select committees based on a coroner's recommendations eight years ago after a body came alive on an undertaker's table in Wellington.
"The coroner recommended we approach Government for some form of formal registration to operate a funeral home," he said.
"We put in a submission to the Health Practitioners Competency Assurance Bill and it fell on deaf ears.
"The Government won't do anything unless people say things are wrong - the select committees wouldn't have a bar of it."
He said the Ministry of Health is well aware of the problems but there was still "no consumer protection out there".
