Michele Reagan

Restrictions eased on transporting bodies

What the new law does: Mandates that human remains be transported inside a suitable container when shipped by common carrier and states that remains do not need to be transported within 24 hours after death.
Expanded commerce is the goal of a new bill that has eased restrictions on how human remains are transported into and out of Arizona, as well how such remains are processed within the state’s borders.
The bill, H2442 (Chapter 139), passed 28-2 in the Senate, 58-0 in the House, was signed into law by Governor Napolitano on April 17 and took effect on the general effective date.
“The law before this bill said you can’t transport a body over state lines unless it’s been embalmed,” said Rep. Michele Reagan, R-8, H2442’s sponsor.
“The problem was that there are some faiths, for instance the Jewish faith and some of the Native American faiths, that don’t embalm bodies.”
Ms. Reagan, chairman of the House Commerce Committee, said directors of local funeral homes did not want restrictions on their clientele and that they requested she seek to change the statute to reflect the varying burial practices of different religious groups.
H2442 allows for such accommodations by overriding previous Department of Heath Services rules, which stated that bodies removed from Arizona by common carriers or transported within the state must be embalmed if held for more than 24 hours.
The bill also defines suitable containers for all human remains transported by common carriers, embalmed or not, as those that ensure against the seepage of fluid and the escape of offensive odors.
Ms. Reagan said the challenge in drafting H2442 was not in fixing the problem faced by funeral homes, but in doing so without creating a new problem of overregulation.
“One of the things that I adamantly oppose is placing any more mandates on businesses,” she added.
She said the bill’s title, Transportation of Human Remains, proved entertaining to some of her fellow legislators during the voting process.
“I think some of my colleagues got a chuckle out of it, but to the mortuaries, this was an important bill,” she added.
“The end result was something that people were pretty happy with.”
— By Daniel Raven, Arizona Capitol Times correspondent