(A) No person licensed as a funeral director or embalmer shall remove or embalm a dead human body when the person has information indicating crime or violence of any sort in connection with the cause of death until permission first has been obtained from the coroner or medical examiner or some other qualified person acting in this capacity.

(B) No public officer or employee, the official of any public institution, physician, surgeon, or any other person having a professional relationship with a decedent may send or cause to be sent to a funeral establishment or to a person licensed for the practice of funeral service the remains of a deceased person without having first made due inquiry as to the desires of the next of kin and of the persons who may be chargeable with the funeral and expenses of the decedent, such as the person named in the decedent’s United States Department of Defense Record of Emergency Data Form (DD Form 93), or its successor form, if the decedent died while serving in any branch of the United States Armed Services, as defined in 10 U.S.C. § 1481. If any kin is found, authority and directions of the kin govern except in those instances where the deceased made prior arrangements in writing, such as the aforementioned Record of Emergency Data.

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 40-19-280

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Crematory: means an establishment in which the dead body is reduced to residue by intense heat. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Department: means the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation;

    (5) "Director" means the Director of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation or the director's official designee;

    (6) "Licensee" means a person granted an authorization to practice pursuant to this article and refers to a person holding a license, permit, certification, or registration granted pursuant to this article;

    (7) "Licensing act" means the individual statute or regulations, or both, of each regulated profession or occupation which include, but are not limited to, board governance, the qualifications and requirements for authorization to practice, prohibitions, and disciplinary procedures;

    (8) "Person" means an individual, partnership, or corporation;

    (9) "Profession" or "occupation" means a profession or occupation regulated or administered, or both, by the department pursuant to this article. See South Carolina Code 40-1-20
  • Disposition: means the final disposal of the body whether by earth interment, aboveground burial, cremation, burial at sea, or delivery to a medical institution for lawful dissection and experimentation or removal from the State pursuant to obtaining a burial transit permit. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • Embalmer: means a person licensed by the board to disinfect and preserve or attempt to disinfect and preserve the dead human body, entirely or in part, by the use of application of chemicals, fluids, or gases, externally or internally, or both, by their introduction into the body by vascular or hypodermic injections, by direct application into the organs or cavities, or by other method and includes the restoration or attempted restoration of the appearance of the dead human body. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • funeral: means a period following death in which there are religious services or other rites or ceremonies with the body of the deceased present. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • Funeral director: means a person licensed by the board to engage for hire or profit in the profession of arranging, directing, or supervising funerals. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • Practice of funeral service: means :

    (a) engaging in providing shelter, care, and custody of the human dead;

    (b) the practice of preparing the human dead by embalming or other methods for burial or other disposition;

    (c) arranging for the transportation of the human dead;

    (d) making arrangements at or before the time of death, financial or otherwise, including arrangements for cremation, for providing these services, or the sale of funeral merchandise, whether for present or future use; provided, that no funeral director, embalmer, funeral company, cemetery, or related entity shall charge a fee for the assignment to the funeral director, embalmer, funeral company, cemetery, or related entity of an insurance policy providing burial expenses, excluding preneed contracts as provided in § 32-7-35; and

    (e) engaging in the practice or performing any functions of funeral directing or embalming as presently recognized by persons engaged in these functions. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20
  • Retail sales outlet: means an establishment wherein funeral merchandise is sold or provided, or both, to the general public. See South Carolina Code 40-19-20

(C) No company, corporation, or association engaged in the business of paying or providing for the payment of the expenses of the funeral, disposition, or other similar expenses of the deceased members or of certificate holders, or engaged in the business of providing insurance upon the life of an individual, under which an obligation may arise to care for the remains of the insured, shall contract to pay or shall pay insurance or benefits, or part of insurance or benefits, to a funeral establishment, licensee, or individual in a manner which may deprive the representative, next of kin, or family of the deceased person from, or in any way control them in, procuring a funeral establishment, person licensed for the practice of funeral service, or other proper and competent person to perform funeral services and furnish supplies to care for the remains of the decedent.

(D) No person licensed as a funeral director or embalmer or anyone acting for a funeral director or embalmer shall have a part in a transaction or business which in any way interferes with the freedom of choice of the general public to choose a person licensed for the practice of funeral service or to choose a funeral establishment except where the body or a part of the body is given for anatomical purposes.

(E) It is unlawful for a person, partnership, corporation, or association who has not been licensed or registered as provided for in this chapter to transact, practice, or hold himself out as transacting or practicing funeral service or operating or maintaining a funeral establishment, crematory, or retail sales outlet within this State.

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