California · Health and Safety Code - HSC

HSC §7055: (a) A person who, for themselves or for another person, inters, cremates, reduces, or hydrolyzes a body or permits the same to be done, or removes any remains, other than cremated, reduced, or hydroly

Misdemeanor

What this law says, in plain English

A person who disposes of, processes, or moves human remains without proper permits from local authorities is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by fines and possible jail time.

Read the full statutory text
(a) A person who, for themselves or for another person, inters, cremates, reduces, or hydrolyzes a body or permits the same to be done, or removes any remains, other than cremated, reduced, or hydrolyzed human remains, from the primary registration district in which the death, cremation, reduction, or hydrolysis occurred or the body was found, except a removal by a funeral director in a funeral director’s conveyance or an officer of a duly accredited medical college engaged in official duties with respect to the body of a decedent who has willfully donated their body to the medical college from that registration district or county to another registration district or county, or within the same registration district or county, without the authority of a burial or removal permit issued by the local registrar of the district in which the death occurred or in which the body was found; or removes interred human remains from the cemetery in which the interment occurred, removes cremated remains from the premises on which the cremation occurred, removes reduced human remains from the premises on which the reduction occurred, or removes hydrolyzed human remains from the premises on which the hydrolysis occurred without the authority of a removal permit is guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable as follows: (1) For the first offense, by a fine of not less than ten dollars ($10) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500). (2) For each subsequent offense, by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500) or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 60 days, or by both. (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), a funeral director of a licensed out-of-state funeral establishment may transport human remains out of this state without a removal permit when the funeral director is acting within the requirements specified in subdivision (b) of Section 103050. (c) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2027.

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