Legal Lowdown & Cremation Coupons | 4M #138
Welcome to the hundred-and-thirty-eighth edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #138, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!
Colorado bill passes House
Colorado’s Senate Bill 173, one of several recently-introduced efforts to regulate the state’s recently-raucous deathcare situation, has passed the House. This bill will require directors, mortuary science practitioners, embalmers, cremationists, and natural reductionists to be licensed — something that hasn’t been required in the state for 40 years. There are also requirements for prospective deathcare professionals to pay an application fee, pass a criminal history check, and not be subject to discipline in another state. These regulations will go into effect on January 1, 2027.
Pennsylvania House passes AH bill
Representatives in the Keystone State overwhelmingly passed H.B. 1172, a bill that would legalize alkaline hydrolysis, last week. If the bill also passes the Senate, Pennsylvania will become the 29th state to offer water cremation.
Florida gets more regulatory power
In the wake of a Jacksonville funeral director’s abandoning of his funeral home — with three decomposing bodies still inside — Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that will give the state more authority to investigate derelict funeral homes. After receiving complaints about missing money, mishandling of remains, and an unreachable funeral director, authorities finally obtained a warrant to investigate Marion Graham Mortuary in February. As mishandling bodies was just a misdemeanor at the time, authorities had to prove potential fraud — a felony — before they were granted the warrant. The new law, which will go into effect July 1, will make mishandling remains a felony.
Delaware bill still waiting on governor
On March 21, 2024, Delaware press announced that they were the “8th State to Legalize Natural Organic Reduction.” While it is true that House Bill 182 overwhelmingly passed the Delaware Senate on that date after similar success in the House in January, the bill had not yet — and, as of this writing, still has not — been signed into law by the governor.
New marketing idea?
The first week of May is also known as Teacher’s Appreciation Week, a time when students and the community alike gather goodies to give to their favorite educators. Unfortunately, not all gifts are equally appreciated, such as one provided to teachers by a church that included a coupon for — wait for it — 10% off cremation services at a local funeral home. One teacher who received this gift posted his haul on TikTok, sharing his “personal favorite, Weaver and Peaks Memorial Funeral Care hand sanitizer and a business card advertising 10% off cremation services. Happy teacher appreciation week to me.”
