Cremation societies promote the acceptance of cremation as an end-of-life option, often providing cremation services themselves as well. The Cremation Society of England, founded in 1874, was the first of the modern cremation societies. It was followed in the US by the Cremation Association of North America, which is still active today in promoting and supplying cremation providers and setting educational and ethical guidelines for those providers. Many states have cremation societies as well, which function as clearinghouses for cremation information and provide memorial and cremation services. There is also a for-profit National Cremation Society with offices in 45 states, as well as the Internet Cremation Society, which is an online portal to various products and services associated with cremation. Most cremation societies are for-profit businesses in fact, providing valuable relief and important information to people in the midst of the most trying times of their lives.

Cremation has been practiced all over the world throughout all of recorded history, and continues to be mandated today by many South Asian religions. Although forbidden in the Christian world for centuries, cremation has slowly come to be accepted by most Christian denominations. The Bible does not expressly forbid cremation, and most Protestant faiths have long been open to the practice. Christian cremation was forbidden generally because it was thought to be an impediment to resurrection and an insult to God to destroy a creature created in His image. Today, both the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations accept the practice and acknowledge that cremation will not prevent God from resurrecting the souls of believers.

Despite its near universal practice throughout human history, cremation is poorly accepted among the Orthodox Jewish community. This taboo has persisted through tradition despite the absence of explicit rejection by either the Talmud or the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). The decision for whether cremation is a viable Jewish option depends largely on whether the beliefs of the deceased coincided primarily with Orthodox or Reform Judaism. Liberals and members of the Reform movement are generally more accepting of the practice of cremation, while conservative and Orthodox Jews see it as a desecration of the body, which is strictly forbidden. Generally speaking, cremains are allowed to be interred in a Jewish cemetery by both liberal and conservative denominations, because the final and ultimate command on this topic is that the body be buried.