§ 23-3-18 - Permits.
SECTION 23-3-18
§ 23-3-18 Permits. – (a) The funeral director, his or her duly authorized agent, or another personacting as a duly authorized agent, who first assumes custody of a dead body orfetus shall prepare a burial-transit permit prior to final disposition orremoval from the state of the body or fetus and within seven (7) calendar daysafter death.
(b) The burial-transit permit shall be signed by the funeraldirector and by the certifying physician as designated in § 23-3-16(c).
(c) A burial-transit permit issued under the law of anotherstate which accompanies a dead body or fetus brought into this state shall beauthority for final disposition of the body or fetus in this state.
(d) A permit for disinterment and re-interment shall berequired prior to disinterment of a dead body or fetus except as authorized byregulation or otherwise provided by law. The permit shall be issued by thelocal registrar of vital records at the place of disinterment to a licensedfuneral director, embalmer, his or her duly authorized agent, or another personacting as a duly authorized agent, upon proper application.
(e) The body of a deceased person shall not be crematedwithin twenty-four (24) hours after his or her death unless he or she dies of acontagious or infectious disease. The body shall not be received or cremated byany corporation authorized to cremate the bodies of the dead until its officershave received the burial permit required by law before burial, and a cremationcertificate issued by the Rhode Island office of state medical examiners. Acremation certificate shall be issued only if the office of state medicalexaminers determines that the cause and manner of death is such that no furtherexamination or judicial inquiry concerning the cause and manner of death isnecessary.
(2) The cremation certificate issued to the funeral directorby the medical examiner, in duplicate, shall accompany the body to thecrematory. The crematory shall retain the duplicate copy and mail the originalcopy to the state division of vital records.