Embalming in popular culture

Fictional works tend to portray the fantastic, extraordinary and often disfunctional aspects of any profession or activity with which the public has little contact, and to ignore the mundane or routine. Embalming is no exception.

• The television show Six Feet Under, set in a funeral home, has brought embalming and funeral practice back into the public eye and is noted for its reality and dark humour. The character Hector Federico "Rico" Diaz is a full-time embalmer employed by the funeral parlour in the show. Most of the fantastic restorations that Frederico performed were far beyond the scope or ability of most embalmers and do not reflect the true goings on in a preparation room.
• The reality TV show Family Plots, shown on the A&E Network, often gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the embalming room. The embalmer, Shonna Smith (nee Wissmiller), has become a minor celebrity known for her sarcasm and chutzpah when dealing with her eccentric family. This show portrays a group of dysfunctional people and doesn't reflect the entire industry. Most funeral directors comport themselves with professionalism, not the sensationalized melodrama of "Family Plots".
• In the episode of the cartoon South Park entitled Pinkeye Kenny is transformed into a zombie when worcestershire sauce is used as embalming fluid.
• Many horror films dealing with animate mummies focus on gruesome aspect of Ancient Egyptian embalming practises, frequently having them embalmed alive as punishment for some transgression.
• In the end of the Vincent Price film The Abominable Dr. Phibes the central villain rather ludicrously embalms himself to be forever with his dead wife in the final sequence. This does not stop his resurrection for the sequel.
• There is a horror movie titled The Embalmer whose movie posters read "...beauty after beauty dragged to a sunken crypt...petrified play-captives of THE EMBALMER".
• In the film Kissed the lead female character is a necrophiliac who is training to become an embalmer.
• It was rumoured that after her death Diana, Princess of Wales was hastily embalmed to cloud tests that she may have been pregnant. However if this were the case an autopsy would still have easily been able to determine such an obvious condition and the rumour is just urban myth.
• Contrary to media reports John Paul II (pope 1978-2005) was not embalmed before lying in state and photographs of him clearly show the blotchiness and discolouration that is characteristic of lividity and the early stages of decomposition. It's speculated however that myrrh may have been rubbed on the body.
• Having died in the summer when heat would hasten decomposition, Paul VI (pope 1963-1978) decomposed at his lying in state, prompting Vatican officials to install fans around the body to disperse the odour.
• Pius XII's (pope 1939-1958) botched embalming by a charlatan doctor -- which only speeded up the rate of decomposition -- led to his body turning black and his nose falling off while lying in state, and the body disintegrated in the coffin. The Swiss Guards stationed around Pius XII's body were forced to change shifts every ten to fifteen minutes since the body's odor caused some guards to pass out. The doctor who performed the embalming had also taken photos of the Pontiff in his death throes and intended to sell them to tabloids. The Italian tabloids refused to buy the photos, and the doctor was banned from entering the Vatican City-State by John XXIII, who furthermore prohibited any photography of a deceased Pope until the body is properly vested and laid out.
• John XXIII's body is on display in an altar on the main floor of the Basilica of Saint Peter after having been exhumed from the grottoes beneath the main altar and has retained an extremely well-preserved state. If a body's remains do not decompose and this cannot be explained by science, it is often treated as a miracle. However, the case of John XXIII's body did not enjoy the same acclamation, as it may have merely been due to embalming and adipocere formation.
• Murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers was so well embalmed it allowed for a viable autopsy to be performed on his corpse decades after his death and this helped secure the conviction of his killer.
• Perhaps the most famous embalmed body of the 20th century is that of Vladimir Lenin, which continues to draw crowds decades after his death.
• Eva Perón ("Evita") was embalmed at the request of her husband, Argentine President Juan Perón, in order to make a Lenin-like shrine to her memory. A coup d'état toppled Perón, and his plan did not come to fruition. Sixteen years after her death, Eva Perón's body was exhumed and found to be in perfect condition, leading some sectors of Argentine society to call for her canonization.
• When Abraham Lincoln's body was embalmed, the embalmer preserved it for the long term. A century later, it was disinterred for forensic study. The body was perfectly preserved, with no sign of decomposition, but the skin had been oxidized by the chemicals and was nearly black in color.
• Arterial embalming began in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Embalming is no longer allowed in the Netherlands, except in the case of international transport of the corpse and in the case of members of the royal family, who choose individually for or against it.
• Plastination makes it possible to preserve individual tissues and organs that have been removed from the body of the deceased as well as the entire body itself. It is not achieved via arterial injection like embalming but by a much longer and more complicated process. Water and fat in tissue are replaced with silicone in a process which, for most specimens, takes about one month. Preserved tissue is first dissected and then dehydrated with acetone. It is immersed in a silicone bath under vacuum until the replacement of acetone is completed. After plastination, the resulting tissue is safe to handle (i.e., toxic fixatives are eliminated), the tissue has no odor, is extremely durable and intact even to the microscopic level. Thus, the anatomical specimens are safer to use, more pleasant to use, and are much more durable and have a much longer period of use. Plastination is not used for funerals due to time, cost and feasibility restraints.