Cremation Serves and Legal Issue

Legal Issues in Cremation

Annotated Bibliography

The sources listed in this annotated bibliography provide a beginning body of information about the legal issues that emerge when a cremation is not carried out according to the wishes of the family or the deceased. The resources provide information about failed cremation that was due to negligence on the part of the official licensed to provide cremation services.

Two of the research questions are: What are the regulations about licensing and inspections of crematoria in various states? In which states does the law make it crime to negligently dispose of a body?

Gilligan, T.S. (2013, November 15). Hawaii Adopts NFDA's Model Right of Disposition Law. The Director. National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA). Retrieved

http://nfda.org/government-relations-/current-funeral-service-issues/3824-hawaii-adopts-nfdas-model-right-of-disposition-law.html

This article is useful as it explains the legal problems that can emerge when a state (such as Alaska and Hawaii) do not have a right of disposition law. Specifically, the article states that crematories gain critical legal protections from this new law in Hawaii, and that they are basically immune from lawsuit if they have acted in good faith with a bona fide representative of the family. The law also "addresses the issue of unclaimed cremated remains by giving a funeral home, crematory or cemetery in possession of unclaimed cremated remains the authority to dispose of them sixty days after the cremation takes place."

Tri State Crematory Master Complaint U.S. District Court ND GA Retrieved http://www.legaleaseus.com/cmsAdmin/uploads/1_2002_09_27_Master_Complaint.pdf

The Tri-State Crematory case brought an historic legal issue into the public arena. This is one of a collection of pleadings that, although they are not truly legal forms, convey an accounting of case development, presents the underlying legal arguments, facts, and theories presented in court. The transcripts in this and other pleadings in this case serve as explanation for how the legal system addressed a substantive and unusual court case.

____. (2014). Burial Rights, Corpse. Retrieved http://legaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Burial+Rights

This resource is useful in that it sums up common law and statute in general for issues related to the burial, particularly for situations involving negligence of some kind. For instance, it is a misdemeanor to possess a body and refuse or neglect to bury of dispose of a corpse indecently. Permitting a body to be taken from a person who agrees to properly bury a corpse subjects that person to lawsuit. At common law, and often under state statute, it is an offense to neglect to bury or cremate a body within a reasonable period of time after death. Putting several corpses in the same crematorium during a single burn cycle. Results in the commingling of ashes, which is viewed as an act that undermines the respect due a dead person.

Morton v. Maricopa County, 865 P.2d 808 (Ariz App. 1993).

Retreived http://www.aele.org/law/Digests/civil123.html