An Act to Provide for an Electronic Permit for the Disposition of Human Remains
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 0465
Committee: Health and Human Services
Sponsors: THORNE
Amends: 22 MRSA §2843

Legislative Document
No. 465
H.P. 282
House of Representatives, February 7, 2023
An Act to Provide for an Electronic Permit for the Disposition of 
Human Remains
Reference to the Committee on Health and Human Services suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative THORNE of Carmel.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  22 MRSA §2843, 2nd ¶, as amended by PL 2009, c. 601, §27, is further 
amended to read:
The State Registrar of Vital Statistics, or a municipal clerk or a subregistrar may issue 
a permit for final disposition by cremation, burial at sea, use by medical science or removal 
from the State only upon receipt of a certificate of release by a duly appointed medical 
examiner as specified in Title 32, section 1405.
Sec. 2.  22 MRSA §2843, 3rd ¶, as amended by PL 2009, c. 601, §27, is repealed.
Sec. 3.  22 MRSA §2843, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2013, c. 20, §1, is further 
amended to read:
3.  Permit for burial.  The person in charge of each burying ground or funeral director 
or authorized person present at the burial or crematory in this State shall endorse or 
electronically affirm, and provide the date the body was or cremated remains were disposed 
of on, each such permit with which that person is presented, and return it to the State 
Registrar of Vital Statistics or to the clerk of the municipality in which such the burying 
ground or crematory is located within 7 days after the date of disposition. If there is no 
person in charge of the burying ground, an official of the municipality in which the burying 
ground is located shall endorse, and provide the date the body was disposed of on, each 
such permit, and present it to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or the clerk of the 
municipality.  The funeral director or authorized person shall present a copy of each permit, 
after endorsement or electronic affirmation, to the State Registrar of Vital Statistics or the 
clerk of the municipality where death occurred and to the clerk who issued the permit to be 
filed in the electronic death registration system authorized pursuant to section 2847.  The 
State Registrar of Vital Statistics shall adopt rules to implement this subsection.  Rules 
adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 
375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 4.  22 MRSA §2843, sub-§3-A, as amended by PL 2019, c. 257, §1, is 
repealed.
Sec. 5.  22 MRSA §2843, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2019, c. 611, §1, is further 
amended to read:
4.  Records.  Each municipality shall maintain a record of any endorsed or 
electronically affirmed permit received pursuant to subsection 3 or 3‑A in the electronic 
death registration system described in section 2847.  A copy of an endorsed or 
electronically affirmed permit must be made available to a member of the public upon a 
request made to the municipal clerk.  The State Registrar of Vital Statistics may adopt 
routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2‑A to carry out the 
purposes of this subsection.
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes a funeral director or authorized person present at a burial or 
crematory in this State to electronically affirm the disposition of human remains.