Debate about the law

“Will the police check whether ashes are still in the urn?”

The amendment to the law on urns is currently under review.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com - © Jure Gasparic 2021)

An amendment to the Tyrolean Municipal Medical Services Act stipulates that urns may be kept at home after cremation in future, but the ashes must remain in the urn. The Greens are in favor of a more liberal regulation, especially when it comes to the scattering of ashes.

"Many people would like their ashes to be scattered to the four winds after their death, spread from a mountain top or given to a stream. But the state government is preventing this," explains Tyrol's Green Party leader Gebi Mair, "it is heartbreaking when the state government denies dying people their last wish."

"New regulation not thought through to the end"
For the Greens, the new regulation has not been thought through to the end: "The black-red state government now allows urns to be kept at home. However, the scattering of ashes remains prohibited. Do you have to imagine that after three years the police will come and check whether the urn at home is still full?"

In practice, people will take the urn home with them and then secretly fulfill the wishes of the deceased.

Gebi Mair (Grüne)

Bild: Christof Birbaumer

"Respect instead of criminalizing"
Mair rejects this "state interference in privacy": "Many families are being criminalized in this way. In practice, people will take the urn home with them and then secretly fulfill the wishes of the deceased and scatter the ashes."

Only 20 grams of ashes may be removed according to the state government's current draft law. The Greens around Gebi Mair have announced that they will "use the review period to persuade the state government to respect the wishes of the dying and refrain from state interference in their privacy."