Cremation

Igros Moshe (YD III #147.2)  Question Is it permitted to bury the ashes of someone cremated in a Jewish cemeyery?Answer A person who was cremated either because of the evil request of the children  or his own sinfulness it is not allowed that the ashes are to be buried in a Jewish cemetary and in fact the ashes of a corpse do not need to be buried 

Igros Moshe (YD IV #56.1) Question A  Jewish man died and was buried in Russia in a cemetary which is for all Russians including non Jews since the Soviets do not allow a cemetary exclusively for Jews.Later the family was allowed to leave Russia to go to America and the family doesn’t want to leave him buried in the public cemetary with non Jews but the Russians don’t want him to be taken from the cemetary. Therefore the family disinterred the body and cremated it and took the ashes to America with them. And they want to bury the ashes in a Jewish cemetary.  Should the ashes of a cremated corpse be buried even though this is not required by the children to show respect for their father. Answer The ashes from cremation do not require burial. However if they want to bury the ashes to honor his memory, they should not be stopped and it even might be good to do.especially for their father even though the halacha does not require it since the world considers this the respectful thing to do. And there is no actual prohibition. From the aspect of those buried in the Jewish cemetary there is no problem to bury the ashes even if the cremated person was wicked, so that even if he were not cremated he would not be buried next to a pious person. That is because the ashes are not the same as a corpse. However the relatives of those buried in the cemetary can  try and prevent the burial by claiming that this might give the rest of the Russian’s family the right to be to be buried there and that in general Russians are not pious Jews. If that happens the family of the Russian should give a document saying they are not assuming the right to be buried there by the burial of the ashes. 

Igros Moshe (YD IV #56.3) Question: Does the family need to ask forgiveness from the deceased for disinterring the body and cremating it? Answer  It seems that that according to halacha the family has done something improper enen though that was the only way to take him from the public cemetary. and to take the deceased to America . However while what they did was prohibited they only did it out of respect for the deceased and there were no rabbinic authority to ask.  Since most people would consider that they acted to show respect to the deceased and what they did was they mistakenly viewed as a mitzva and this is considered more lenient than a sin done by mistake. It would seem that the children do not need to ask for forgiveness while if non children were involved they do need to ask forgiveness.