LONDON: The next time mourners refer to a dead friend as a ‘diamond geezer’, they might mean it for real. British customers are flocking to an American company which has developed the technology to turn human remains into diamonds.

LifeGem Memorials has patented a 16-week process that involves purifying ash at 3,000 degrees Celsius before it is further heated and pressurized into a diamond. The diamonds range in cost from (pounds sterling) 2,500 to (pounds sterling) 14,000. In Europe, they are certified by the European Gemological Laboratory, which examines gems from across the world.

The company has already taken a flood of inquiries from Britons who want to turn their relatives into diamonds.

“The average person has enough carbon in them to produce between 50 and 100 diamonds,” said Amanda Leesburgh, a company spokesperson. “It’s a simple process. We’re basically taking the fact that all living creatures are carbon-based, and so are diamonds. Once we figured out how to get between the two, the process worked.

“We’ve been surprised by the number of people who have called in to inquire. I think people across the world like the idea of wearing a diamond that is very much part of their loved one.”

The news comes amid a boom for crematoriums in Britain, a rise that can be attributed to escalating burial costs — undertakers charge between $2,300 and $3,100 for the average funeral, while crematorium charges average around $375. Britain has one of the highest cremation rates in the world, with 70 per cent of the 600,000 people who die each year being cremated. According to the Funeral Standards Council, 428,000 people were cremated in 2001.

“These alternatives are normally done in quite good taste,” said a spokesperson for the Funeral Standards Council in Cardiff, Wales. “People want to deal with grief in different ways. Some might find the concept of using cremated remains in diamonds useful to come to terms with their loss.”

Other companies have come up with ingenious ways of dealing with what industry insiders call ‘cremains’. Eternal Reefs, a Florida company, integrates them into artificial coral reefs. The company’s president, Don Brawley, has mixed the ‘cremains’ of more than 100 people into his ‘reef balls’, which are placed off the coastline of Florida.

Human ashes are also finding their way into space. A Houston company, Celestis, has launched the remains of around 100 people into orbit, including the writer and psychedelic guru Timothy Leary and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. The ashes are poured into pen-sized aluminium containers and sent into space using small rockets. Prices vary from $1,000 to launch one gram of ash into orbit to $2,400 to send seven grams into deep space or even to the Moon.

One of the most bizarre uses for human remains is to turn them into paintings — as offered by Eternally Yours Memorial Art, a Mississippi company. Artist Bettye Brokl uses human ashes to make abstract paintings by sprinkling them over a canvas and fixing with a strong sealant.

Customers can order tailor-made themes to match their home decor or request paintings that reflect the favourite place or object of their dearly departed.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.