Here’s a letter to USA Today:
Kudos to Scott Bullock, Jeff Rowes, and their colleagues at the Institute for Justice for defending the right of monks at St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana to sell caskets – and, hence, for defending the right of people to buy caskets from whomever they please (“In defense of monks and free enterprise,” August 12).
I have personal evidence that Louisiana’s requirement that all caskets be bought from a licensed funeral director is simply meant to protect funeral directors from competition.
When my mother died in 2008, a friend recommended that we bury her in a casket from St. Joseph Abbey. While making arrangements at the funeral home – but before we mentioned an Abbey casket to the funeral director – my family and I were shown several caskets that the home offered for sale. All were pricey. When we finally mentioned that we were considering a casket from St. Joseph Abbey, the funeral director suddenly remembered that he offered some less-expensive caskets. Only then did he show us his more competitively priced models.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
