Archives: LifeGem turns the dead into diamonds

Note: I remember having a funny lead for this, but it was killed by the editor. In fact, the whole story was ruined by the editor.

LifeGem turns the dead into diamonds
August 23, 2002 10:00
By Jeff Meredith

CHICAGO - The world of alternative death memorials and wishes has gained a lot of press recently and a Chicago company, LifeGem Memorials (www.lifegem.com), is poised to pounce on what little shock value remains with a new product for the bereaved.

Say hello to the LifeGem, a diamond created from the carbon remains of deceased loved ones - carbon that is captured during cremation.

The market has witnessed some strange offerings lately. Hall of Fame baseball slugger Ted Williams has been cryogenically frozen and Ken Headrick, who popularized the Frisbee, had his ashes molded into a limited number of "memorial flying discs" to be given to friends and family and sold to help fund a Frisbee memorabilia museum.

And historically, let us not forget Celestis, a Houston-based company conducting funerals like the one that blasted the ashes of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry, creator of "Star Trek," into space back in 1997.

Relative to these stories, perhaps LifeGem isn't quite as strange, although it raises ethical and moral issues. But when Greg Herro, CEO of LifeGem Memorials, appears on NBC's "Today" show Friday morning, he'll be telling millions of viewers about something that can "create a testimony to the life of a lost loved one."

"There are [memorializing] products that are available that no longer satisfy the needs of the family," said Herro in an interview with I-Street. "They're looking for a personal, individualized source for remembering their loved one. The LifeGem fulfills those needs."

LifeGem Memorials spent three years developing a patent-pending process for tracking, collecting and purifying carbon from cremation through diamond creation.

A small group of U.S. funeral homes in five states (California, Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin and New York) is now offering diamonds from LifeGem, which start at $4,000 (quarter-carat) and can surpass $22,000 at one carat. While Herro acknowledges that people are sometimes taken aback by the company's offering, he is encouraged by the early response.

"What we've found, based on our customer research, is many people that are astonished this is even available think it's a wonderful memorial within hours or days," said Herro. "The LifeGem is being introduced to the world ... without people knowing it was possible last week, there is a certain amount of surprise that is usually followed by acceptance."

Reporting the results of a Fox TV poll conducted this week, a spokesperson for LifeGem said "65 percent were in favor of it. They would turn themselves into diamonds."

Attention was lavished on the company Tuesday, thanks to a Chicago Tribune story and several TV stations which devoted time to LifeGem during their news broadcasts.

"Now you can be brilliant and flawless forever. But you have to be cremated first," wrote Christine Tatum of the Tribune.

LifeGem is actually banking on rising cremation rates as it looks at its potential market; it notes that the number of cremations in the United States has tripled since 1973, rising to more than 700,000 in 2000.

One of the company's first customers is the family of a Joliet man sick with emphysema, Jack French, who will appear on "Today" via broadcast feed. French wants to have his remains turned into diamonds so that his wife and family will have something to remember him by.

"[Jack] was interested in having his remains scattered in his favorite place. That was in a forest, which left his wife nothing to remember him by and that's why she needed it," said Herro. "A memorial of her husband that she wanted, and here they would [also] have the scattering that he wanted."