Chapter 10

Current legislation

General obligations in relation to disposal of bodies

10.52There are currently a number of statutory obligations concerning the treatment of bodies after death that are relevant both to people in the business of providing funeral services and to anyone who is dealing with bodies after death. For example, section 150 of the Crimes Act 1961 makes it an offence to either neglect to perform a duty imposed by law with reference to the burial or cremation of a dead body or human remains or to improperly or indecently interfere with or offer an indignity to any dead human body or human remains.

10.53There are a number of obligations under the Act, including:

• a person who has charge of a body must dispose of it within a reasonable time;167
• a person having charge of a body must not transfer charge of it to another person without first giving the other person a doctor’s certificate or coroner’s authorisation and getting from them the standard Transfer of Charge of Body form;168 and
• a person who disposes of a body by burial, cremation or otherwise must first obtain a doctor’s certificate or coroner’s authorisation, and that person must also send that documentation to the Ministry of Health.169

10.54In Chapter 15 we make a number of proposals for the modernisation of these obligations in a new statute.