Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-16
UNABLE TO ENDORSE
DIR. WOODWARD DISCUSSES SUG-
GEsTIoN MADE BY UNDERTAKEN.
Would Favor Amendment to Law, but
Relief Under Present Conditions
Cannot Be Given.

DR.. w. c. Woodward, the health officer,
has submitted report to the Commission
ers with regard to the request of an un-
dertaker that change be made in the law
requiring permits to be obtained from the
health office before bodies can be moved
from place to place in the District. The I'M
dertaker especially referred to the removal
of bodies from the various institutions in
the District. He spoke of occasions when
1t was desirable to remove these bodies at
once, without the necessity of going
through red tape Of obtaining permit to
do so from the health department.
After quoting the law on the subject, DR..
Woodward says.
1T was formerly the custom for the
health officer to delegate authority to issue
pitfalls in this District, so that undertakers
would not have to come to the health office
In order to secure removal permits. Atten-
ton was however, called in trial in the
Police Court to the fact that the law did
not authorize the health officer TO delegate
to persons not connected with the health
office the right to issue transfer permits.
The practice, too, was found to be object
tionable in that hospital authorities were
careless in the issue of transfer permits or
undertakers were careless in demanding
them.
The Opposite Views.
ut was claimed on the one hand that
hospital authorities declined to issue per-
mits instructing undertakers to remove
the bodies without them: and, on the other
hand that undertakers refused to receive
such permits, declining to wait for them,
or. II permits were delivered. destroying
them, even while in the act of leaving
the hospital premises. The practice was
not stopped, however, until the occurrence
of in which fhrOnQh the
issue of a permit by an officer connected
with a hospital, a dead body was removed
from the District without the knowledge
Of the health department and, Of course,
without any record being made of the
death. -.
This case was subsequently discovered
only through application made to the
health department for a transcript Of the
record of death In the judgment of the
health departments experience has demon
strated that 1t is unsafe to trust to hospital
officials the right to issue transfer permits
SO long as the law does not definitely au-
thorize this to be done or provide suitable
methods by which such officials could be
required to perform such duty properly.
1T is suggested that a distinction might
be made in favor of registered undertakers
in this matter. This Is, for administrative
reasons, impra cticable. A police officer find
ing a person driving through the streets
with a dead body would be unable to tell
whether he was or was not licensed I'M
dertaker.
Moreover, the registration Of undertakers
in this District Is lax in the extreme. APP
plicants for registration are not, examined
as to their knowledge Of the proper
methods of handling dead bodies, they are
required to furnish no bond for the proper
performance of their duties and their regis
tration cannot, 1t Is understood, be can
celed for the faulty performance of their
duty or otherwise SO long as they continue
in business. Like other classes, undertake
ers include among their number some Of
our most respected citizens, and from such
they vary all the way down to men who
might almost be said to be on the ragged
edge Of responsibility. The recognition of
undertakers as class would, therefore, in
my judgment, be impracticable.
Regarded as Rare.
1.-The supposed needless trips to hospitals
referred to by the complainant are, I be-
neve, rare and may practically with a lit
tie forethought be avoided altogether. Every
hospital and most other public institutions
are provided with telephone connection. and
in any case where there is any doubt as to
whether a death certificate has been pro-
vfded by the attending physician the ques-
ton can be definitely settled by use of the
telephone.
Il shall be very glad to see some prac-
ucable amendment to the existing law
drafted and enacted which will authorize
the issue Of transfer permits by some re-
sponsible officer or officers connected with
public semi-public institutions and pro-
vide some feasible method for insuring the
proper issue of permits by them. In the
opinion that it is impracticable to remove