For rural people, is it still legal to bury someone yourself and have a family service?
Or is there a legal requirement to notify the authorities of a natural death at home?
Family cemeteries were still pretty common up until the 1940’s. If you owned forty acres of land, there was plenty of room for a nice fenced off area.
My grandmother had two miscarriages in the 1930’s and my granddad buried the remains in the backyard. One was only a few months along and I think they used a large, mason jar.
I’ve wondered if the Amish bury their dead themselves without fooling with a mortuary?
I’d love to see that documentary. There is something more dignified & intimate in having a family funeral. Especially if you live in a very rural area and have a family cemetery.
I suspect there’s a minefield of various laws and requirements that have to be navigated. That’s one reason I put the question in GQ just to get an idea of what rules are out there.
California, yes, family members have an obligation to report the death. And the coroner is required by law to perform an autopsy unless the patient was under the care of a physician at the time of death. Maybe there are some minor exceptions but generally speaking yes you have to report it to the authorities
I don’t know the answer, but it would seem silly to have a death registry and issue certificates of death if they didn’t back that up and require reporting. What’s the purpose of an incomplete registry?
If a death is expected, as in a cancer patient who has opted to die at home, the nofification process is merely a phone call to the medical examiner, who will come to the house to pronounce. The handling of the body after that may be subject to other laws, but family burial isn’t unheard of. It has to be arranged in advance in most places.
The state has an interest in ensuring that a death without attending physician is indeed natural; and disposal of a body should be hygienic. Local details may vary.
Apart from the considerations previously mentioned, if the deceased was receiving any benefits, like a pension or Social Security, you would probably get into serious trouble if you didn’t notify the people sending the checks.
I don’t understand why having your own family cemetery would in any way absolve you of your duty to notify authorities of the death?
As has been said, interacting with the state in any way, even for a pension (Social Security?), means that you are required to report the death. Before that, there was the census, and before that, churches kept reports of christenings, weddings and funerals. You’ll learn to appreciate them once you start doing genealogy.
In many Christian religions, the ground for a cemetery must be “holy” - being denied a proper burial in holy ground, instead being hastily dug in in a remote corner, used to be a major issue. You can find this in older literature up the 1950s (e.g. Catholic Italy).
Today, the state has recognized that letting people bury their dead nilly-willy everywhere is a potential health/ hygiene problem (you don’t want stuff from decomposing bodies in your water table) and also an opportunity for killers to depose victims, so some states forbid it.
Also, AFAIK, it’s the law in the US to have an autopsy every time somebody dies without a doctors care (one of the few things I wish we’d adopt also), to make sure that murderers don’t get away so easy, and to catch up on accidents (there was a case in Britain in the 50s, I think, where several people turned up dead from CO poisoning, which lead to the discovery of defective coal ovens and a safety education campaign for the public).
Autopsy of children and infants can reveal not only child abuse, but also advance research into diseases like Sudden Infant Death and others.
Depends on the laws of their state. But has nothing to do with notifying the authorities.