What Are the Burial and Cremation Laws in My State?

See who controls final arrangements, cremation and burial rules, permit requirements, and whether human composting or water cremation are allowed in your state.

Select Your State

See your state's burial and cremation laws

Select your state to see who controls final arrangements, cremation and burial rules, and permit requirements.

General information about state burial and cremation statutes, not legal advice. Rules vary by state and locality. Consult a licensed attorney for legal questions.

Yes. Each state sets its own rules for who controls the disposition of remains, cremation waiting periods and authorizations, home burial, embalming, and burial permits. Select your state above to see its specific rules.

Most states set a statutory priority order: typically a spouse, then adult children, then parents, then siblings. Many states also let you name your own agent to control your remains in a signed document before death, which takes priority over the default order. Those wishes can be recorded alongside the rest of an estate plan when you create a revocable living trust.

No. Natural organic reduction (human composting) and alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation) are authorized in a growing but limited number of states. Select your state above to check whether either method is currently allowed.

It depends on the state and local zoning. Some states permit burial on private family land subject to setback and permit rules; others require burial in an established cemetery. Select your state to see its home-burial rules.

What the Final Arrangement Laws Cover

Every state decides by statute who controls what happens to a body. 50 of the 51 jurisdictions let a person name that decision-maker in a signed document before death; otherwise a priority order of relatives applies, beginning with the surviving spouse and running through adult children, parents and siblings. Who signs the cremation authorization, who can object and who pays follow from that order.

Cremation is the most regulated choice: 21 jurisdictions impose a waiting period after death before a body may be cremated, and 29 require clearance from the medical examiner or coroner. Alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation) is authorized in 25 and natural organic reduction (human composting) in 13.

Burial has fewer statutory conditions than families expect. No state requires embalming as a general rule; refrigeration is the alternative the statutes name. Home burial is permitted in 48 jurisdictions subject to local zoning and setback rules, and a family may handle a death without a funeral director in 36, taking on the death registration and transit permit itself.

The state pages carry each rule with the statute it rests on, from the priority order to the permit office that issues the burial or cremation permit.

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