1. Sources of Funeral Service Law
State Laws and Regulations
Case Law
Common Law
Federal Law

2. Dead Body (Corpse) 1) Human 2) deprived of life
3) not entirely disintegrated
“remains of a cremated body, a disintegrated corpse or the bones of a skeleton do not constitute a dead body in the eyes of the law”
State v. Glass

3. Legal Status of a Dead Body
1) No Property Theory
2) Property Theory
3) Quasi-property Theory
Necessity of Disposition

4. Burial Permits Required for any method of disposition
New Jersey: 26:6-5.1
Pennsylvania:
Delaware: Section 3

5. Methods of Disposition
Earth Burial (Interment, Inhumement):
New Jersey: 26:6-36
Entombment: embalming requirements
New Jersey: 8:9-1.1
Pennsylvania: (6)
Cremation: “technically” not a method
New Jersey: 26:7-18.1
Pennsylvania:
Delaware: Section 3 and 3121

6. Methods of Disposition (cont’d)
Burial at Sea
Donation to Medical Science (Delivery for Dissection): UAGA
Preservation