2005 Vermont Code - § 5201. — Permits; removal of bodies; cremation

§ 5201. Permits; removal of bodies; cremation

(a) A dead body of a person shall not be buried, entombed or removed from a town, or otherwise disposed of, except as hereinafter provided, without a burial-transit permit issued and signed by the town clerk, his or her deputy or a law enforcement officer. The town clerk of the town or city shall provide for registering deaths that occur in the town and for issuing burial-transit permits at a time when town clerks' offices are closed. The town clerk shall appoint annually, within five days after the clerk's election or appointment, one or more deputy registrars for this purpose, record the name of the deputy or deputies appointed in the town records and notify the commissioner of health of the names and residences of the deputy or deputies appointed. The county clerk of a county wherein is situated an unorganized town or gore shall perform the same duties and be subject to the same penalties as a town clerk in respect to issuing burial-transit permits and registering deaths that occur in an unorganized town or gore within the county. After a deputy or law enforcement officer issues a burial-transit permit, the deputy or officer shall forward the death certificate or preliminary report and the record of the burial-transit permit issued to the clerk of the town or city where death occurred on the first official working day thereafter. In cases of death by certain communicable diseases as defined by the board, the town clerk, his or her deputy or a law enforcement officer shall not issue a burial-transit permit except in accordance with instructions issued by the local health officer or the board, which instructions shall be kept on file by the town clerk. A licensed embalmer, funeral director or a funeral director's designee may transfer the body of a deceased person to another town for preparation for burial or cremation but the remains shall be returned to the town in which death occurred within forty-eight hours after such removal, unless a permit for permanent removal has been secured within such period. Such licensed embalmer, funeral director or designee shall leave, in writing, upon forms supplied by the commissioner, the name, address, license number of the embalmer or funeral director and the date and hour such body was delivered, with the institution from which or the person from whom any such body is received. A body for which a burial-transit permit has been secured, except the body of any person whose death occurred as a result of a communicable disease, as defined by the board, may be taken through or into another town for funeral services without additional permits from the local health officer or board.

(b) The person in charge of the body shall not release for cremation the body of a person who died in Vermont until the person has received a certificate from the chief, regional or assistant medical examiner that the medical examiner has made personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death and is satisfied that no further examination or judicial inquiry concerning it is necessary. The certificate shall be retained by the person in charge of the body for a period of three years. For the certificate, the medical examiner is entitled to a fee of $10.00 payable by the person requesting cremation. (Amended 1959, No. 329, § 27, eff. March 1, 1961; 1963, No. 102, § 1, eff. May 22, 1963; 1969, No. 265, § 9; 1979, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 16; 1997, No. 40, § 22a; 1999, No. 45, § 3.)