Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-18. Permits
(a) The funeral director, his or her duly authorized agent, or another person acting as a duly authorized agent, who first assumes custody of a dead body or fetus shall prepare a burial-transit permit prior to final disposition or removal from the state of the body or fetus and within seven (7) calendar days after death.
Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-18
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Dead body: means a lifeless human body or parts of a lifeless human body or its bones from the state of which it reasonably may be concluded that death recently occurred. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
- Division: means the division of vital records as defined in this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
- Final disposition: means the burial, interment, cremation, or other disposition of a dead body or fetus. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
- person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
- Physician: means a person authorized or licensed to practice medicine pursuant to chapter 37 of Title 5. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
- Vital records: means records of birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, and data related to those records. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
(b) The burial-transit permit shall be signed by the funeral director and by the certifying physician as designated in § 23-3-16(c).
(c) A burial-transit permit issued under the law of another state which accompanies a dead body or fetus brought into this state shall be authority for final disposition of the body or fetus in this state.
(d) A permit for disinterment and re-interment shall be required prior to disinterment of a dead body or fetus except as authorized by regulation or otherwise provided by law. The permit shall be issued by the local registrar of vital records at the place of disinterment to a licensed funeral director, embalmer, his or her duly authorized agent, or another person acting as a duly authorized agent, upon proper application.
(e)(1) The body of a deceased person shall not be cremated within twenty-four (24) hours after his or her death unless he or she dies of a contagious or infectious disease. The body shall not be received or cremated by any corporation authorized to cremate the bodies of the dead until its officers have received the burial permit required by law before burial, and a cremation certificate issued by the Rhode Island office of state medical examiners. A cremation certificate shall be issued only if the office of state medical examiners determines that the cause and manner of death is such that no further examination or judicial inquiry concerning the cause and manner of death is necessary.
(2) The cremation certificate issued to the funeral director by the medical examiner, in duplicate, shall accompany the body to the crematory. The crematory shall retain the duplicate copy and mail the original copy to the state division of vital records.
History of Section.
G.L. 1896, ch. 100, § 9; P.L. 1897, ch. 452, § 1; G.L. 1909, ch. 121, § 9; P.L. 1910, ch. 575, § 4; P.L. 1911, ch. 713, § 1; P.L. 1914, ch. 1092, § 1; P.L. 1921, ch. 2096, § 4; G.L. 1923, ch. 166, § 8; P.L. 1931, ch. 1698, § 1; P.L. 1932, ch. 1947, § 1; G.L. 1938, ch. 268, § 7; impl. am. P.L. 1939, ch. 660, §§ 180, 182; P.L. 1941, ch. 980, § 1; P.L. 1955, ch. 3442, § 1; impl. am. P.L. 1955, ch. 3453, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-3-18 to § 23-3-22; G.L. 1956, § 23-3-18; P.L. 1961, ch. 87, § 1; P.L. 1962, ch. 13, § 1; P.L. 1977, ch. 110, § 1; P.L. 1977, ch. 242, § 1; P.L. 1978, ch. 361, § 1; P.L. 1993, ch. 272, § 1.