What Are the Burial and Cremation Laws in Arkansas?

Arkansas has no statutory minimum waiting period before cremation. Person with disposition authority per ACA § 20-17-102(d)(1), signing the cremation authorization form (17 CAR § 30-205(a)(1)). Cremation arrangements must be made through a licensed funeral establishment — a crematory is an agent of a full-service funeral firm and does not make arrangements with the public (17 CAR § 30-214(e), § 30-204(a)).

No. Natural organic reduction (human composting) is not currently authorized in Arkansas.

No. Alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation) is not currently authorized in Arkansas.

Arkansas sets a statutory order for who controls the disposition of remains (ACA § 20-17-102(d)(1)): Person designated on DD Form 93 (if decedent died while serving in U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard, or reserve component), then Person appointed in a declaration of final disposition executed before death per § 20-17-102(b), then Surviving spouse, and so on. You can also name your own agent to control your remains in a signed, written document before death. You can record those wishes alongside the rest of your estate plan when you create a revocable living trust.

No. Arkansas does not require embalming by law. Embalming is never required outright — refrigeration is always an alternative. A body not buried within 48 hours after death must be either embalmed or stored under refrigeration at 45°F or less (20 CAR § 1-802(a)); the Board's parallel rule also permits packing in dry ice and frames the trigger as final disposition not occurring within 24 to 48 hours after death (17 CAR § 30-603). A body shipped by common carrier must be thoroughly embalmed and placed in a rigid container built for the purpose; a body that cannot be embalmed or is decomposing may be transported only in an airtight container (20 CAR § 1-801(c)). When cremation is the chosen disposition, embalming and refrigeration are not required for a 48-hour period after death unless a health problem dictates otherwise (20 CAR § 1-802(b); 17 CAR § 30-208(h)). Embalming may also be ordered by the Director of Health for infectious-disease control (17 CAR § 30-603(3)).

No step in an Arkansas BURIAL requires a licensed funeral director. The death certificate is filed by "the funeral director or the person acting as the funeral director who first assumes custody of the dead body" (ACA § 20-18-601(b)), so a family member may serve in that role. Removing the body from the place of death turns on the attending physician's assurance, or the medical examiner's or coroner's authorization where the case is theirs (ACA § 20-18-604(c); 20 CAR § 1-702) — not on a director. A burial-transit permit (required only for cremation or out-of-state transport) issues on the request of "a funeral director or his or her designated representative" (20 CAR § 1-701(b)), which a family member may be. The funeral-directing licensing act (ACA § 17-29-301 et seq.) regulates those who practice or hold themselves out as practicing funeral directing; it does not compel a family directing its own member's disposition to retain a licensee. CREMATION is the one hard exception: "All cremations of human remains in this state shall be arranged through the holder of a licensed funeral establishment" (17 CAR § 30-214(e)), and a crematory "is an agent of a Type A establishment and as such does not make arrangements with the public" (17 CAR § 30-204(a)). A family choosing cremation must therefore go through a licensed funeral establishment, even though it otherwise directs the disposition.

Arkansas provides a publicly funded option when a family cannot pay for disposition: County-administered indigent and unclaimed-body disposition (county court pauper jurisdiction under ACA § 14-14-1105(b)(2); Unclaimed Bodies Act, ACA § 20-17-701 et seq.). Eligible veterans may also be interred at no cost through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Arkansas has no statewide indigent-funeral fund; responsibility sits at the county level. The county court of each county has exclusive original jurisdiction over matters relating to paupers, including county administrative actions affecting public human services programs serving indigent county residents financed in whole or part by county funds (ACA § 14-14-1105(b)(2)) — so a family unable to pay applies through the county, and what is available varies county to county. Separately, under the Unclaimed Bodies Act a body is "unclaimed" when the next of kin cannot be located or does not exercise the right of disposition within the earlier of 2 days of notification or 5 days of death (ACA § 20-17-701(a)(3)); a relative, friend, fraternal society, veterans service organization, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or a charitable or religious group may claim the body for burial or cremation at their own expense, and if no one and no medical school claims it, the person in possession, charge, or control of the body must bury, cremate, or donate it within ten (10) days after the date of death (ACA § 20-17-702(d)-(e)). Disposition authority can also vest in a state-government or political-subdivision representative carrying a statutory disposition obligation (ACA § 20-17-102(d)(1)(K)). Veterans: eligible Arkansas veterans may be interred at a VA national cemetery — Fayetteville and Fort Smith are open to new interments; Little Rock is closed to new gravesites — or at either state veterans cemetery (North Little Rock and Birdeye, both open); the VA also provides burial allowances and headstones/markers for eligible veterans (apply via the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs / Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs).