2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVI - Public Health › Chapter 112 - Registration of Certain Professions and Occupations › Section 84 - Issuance and Renewal of Certificates; Fees; Expiration of Registration; Refusal to Issue or Renew; Suspension or Revocation

Section 84. No certificate, except an establishment certificate, shall be issued or renewed for a period exceeding one year, and all renewals thereof, except embalmer apprentice certificates which shall be issued on an annual basis, shall expire and terminate the first day of November following the date of their issue, unless sooner revoked and cancelled.
Any person holding a registration certificate issued under the provisions of section eighty-three may have the same renewed by making and filing with the board an application therefor within thirty days preceding the expiration of his certificate upon blanks provided by said board, and upon payment of renewal fees to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven for each embalmer's, funeral director's, or apprentice embalmer's certificate; provided that any person neglecting or failing to have his embalmer's or funeral director's certificate so renewed, may have the same renewed by making application therefor during the twenty days following the expiration date, and upon payment of a revival fee, as determined under the aforementioned provision, in addition to the renewal fee.
If no application for renewal or for revival of a funeral director's or embalmer's certificate is made within said twenty days, the holder thereof may within one year of the original date of expiration of the certificate apply for renewal of the same upon the payment to the board of a penalty at the rate of one dollar each week beyond the date of said twenty-day revival period. If at the expiration of one year no application for renewal has been made, the board will remove the former registrant's name from its books. If such former registrant, after the expiration of the one year, applies for registration, he shall be subject to payment of the accrued penalties, and shall be required to meet the provisions of section eighty-three relative to original registration.
The board may refuse to issue or to renew, or may suspend or revoke any certificate, or may place the holder thereof on a term of probation after due public hearing upon finding the holder of such certificate to be guilty of a crime involving moral turpitude, or of unprofessional conduct, which is hereby defined to include (a) misrepresentation or fraud in the conduct of the profession of the registrant; (b) false or misleading or ''bait'' advertising, so called, as a funeral director advertising or using the name of an unregistered person in connection with that of any funeral establishment; (c) soliciting for dead human bodies by the registrant, his agents, assistants or employees, or any person acting on his behalf with his knowledge and consent, express or implied, whether such soliciting occurs after death or while death is impending; provided, that this shall not be deemed to prohibit general advertising; (d) employment by a registered person of persons known as cappers, or steerers or solicitors, or other such persons to obtain funeral directing or embalming; (e) gross immorality; (f) the aiding or abetting of an unregistered person to practice funeral directing or embalming; (g) the use of profane, indecent or obscene language in the presence of a dead human body, or within the immediate hearing of the family or relatives of a deceased, whose body has not yet been interred or otherwise disposed of; (h) solicitation or acceptance by a registered person of any commission or bonus or rebate in consideration of recommending or causing a dead human body to be disposed of in any crematory, mausoleum or cemetery; (i) the resale or rental of any casket or part of any casket which has previously been used as a receptacle for, or in any connection with, the burial or other disposition of a dead human body, without the knowledge and consent of the consumer; provided, however, that any such casket or part of any such casket intended for reuse shall be equipped with a removable liner and said removable liner shall be removed from said casket prior to reuse; provided, further, that the board shall promulgate and adopt rules and regulations concerning said reuse of caskets; (j) violation of any of the provisions of sections eighty-three to eighty-seven, inclusive, or any rule or rules of the board; (k) violation of any state or municipal law or ordinance affecting the handling, custody, care or transportation of dead human bodies; (l) fraud or misrepresentation in obtaining a certificate; (m) the recommending to the board of an applicant for a certificate who has not, to his personal knowledge, complied with the requirements of sections eighty-three to eighty-seven, inclusive, or with the rules and regulations of the board; (n) the refusal to surrender promptly the custody of a dead human body, upon the express order of the person lawfully entitled thereto; and (o) failure to secure a permit for the removal or burial of a dead human body prior to interment or disposal.