(a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a person shall not:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 62-5-804

  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Funeral establishment: means any business, whether a proprietorship, partnership, firm, association or corporation, engaged in arranging, directing or supervising funerals for profit or other benefit, the preparing of dead human bodies for burial, the disposition of dead human bodies, the provision or maintenance of place for the preparation for disposition, or for the care or disposition of human bodies. See Tennessee Code 62-5-101
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Resomation: means the alkaline hydrolysis process. See Tennessee Code 62-5-801
  • Temporary container: means a receptacle for resomated remains composed of cardboard, plastic, metal, or another material that can be closed in a manner that prevents the leakage or spillage of the resomated remains and the entrance of foreign material and that is of sufficient size to hold the resomated remains until the remains are placed in an urn or scattered. See Tennessee Code 62-5-801
  • Urn: means a receptacle designed to permanently encase resomated remains. See Tennessee Code 62-5-801
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Dispose of the resomated remains of a dead human body or body parts in a manner or in a location that the resomated remains are commingled with those of another decedent, or body parts removed from another decedent or living person; or
(2) Place the resomated remains of more than one (1) decedent, or of body parts removed from more than one (1) decedent or living person, in the same urn or temporary container.
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a person may:

(1) Scatter resomated remains at sea, by air, or in a dedicated area at a cemetery used exclusively for the scattering on the ground of the resomated remains of dead human bodies or body parts;
(2) If complying with specific instructions from the decedent or decedents, or an heir or personal representative designated by the decedent or decedents:

(A) Commingle resomated remains of more than one (1) decedent, or of body parts removed from more than one (1) decedent or living person; or
(B) Place in the same urn or temporary container of the resomated remains of more than one (1) decedent, or of body parts removed from more than one (1) decedent or living person; and
(3) If the person is operating under the decedent’s instructions, commingle the resomated remains or body parts removed from another decedent or living person, after receipt of the resomated remains or the body parts, with those of another decedent or body parts removed from another decedent or living person.
(c) Unless otherwise specified by written agreement between the operator of the alkaline hydrolysis facility or funeral establishment and the person or entity requesting the resomation of human remains, resomated human remains unclaimed one hundred eighty (180) calendar days from the date of resomation may be interred, entombed, or inurned by the operator of the facility. The operator of the facility or funeral establishment shall make a record of the disposition of the unclaimed resomated human remains available for inspection on weekdays between the hours of eight o’clock a.m. (8:00 a.m.) and four-thirty p.m. (4:30 p.m.).
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