State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Vermont > Title-18 > Chapter-107 > 5201
§ 5201. Permits; removal of bodies; cremation; waiting period; investigation into circumstances of death
(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) No operator of a crematory facility shall cremate or allow the cremation of a dead body until the passage of at least 24 hours following the death of the decedent, as indicated on the death certificate, unless, if the decedent died from a virulent, communicable disease, a department of health rule or order requires the cremation to occur prior to the end of that period. If the attorney general or a state's attorney requests the delay of a cremation based upon a reasonable belief that the cause of death might have been due to other than accidental or natural causes, the cremation of a dead human body shall be delayed, based upon such request, a sufficient time to permit a civil or criminal investigation into the circumstances that caused or contributed to the death.
(c) The person in charge of the body shall not release for cremation the body of a person who died in Vermont until the person in charge 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 crematory for a period of three years. For the certificate, the medical examiner is entitled to a fee of $25.00 payable by the person requesting cremation.
(d)(1) For all cremations requested for the body of a person who died outside Vermont, the crematory operator must do the following before conducting the cremation:
(A) obtain a permit for transit or cremation;
(B) follow the guidelines of the medical examiner or comparable office for the jurisdiction in which the person died, including, to the extent that such waiting period is longer than that imposed by the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, postponing the cremation until the passage of any waiting period imposed by that state; and
(C) if the state in which the person died issues a medical examiner's permit, obtain a copy of that permit.
(2) No additional approval from the Vermont medical examiner's office shall be required if compliance with the guidelines of the state in which the person died is achieved. (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; 2007, No. 56, § 5; No. 76, § 15.)
