H-4480.1          _______________________________________________

                            SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2328

                  _______________________________________________

State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1992 Regular Session

By House Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance (originally sponsored by Representatives Winsley and Silver)

Read first time 02/05/92.  Allowing a person to dictate the disposition of his or her remains.

     AN ACT Relating to the right of a person to control the disposition of the person's remains; and amending RCW 68.50.180.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

     Sec. 1.  RCW 68.50.180 and 1979 c 21 s 14 are each amended to read as follows:

     The cemetery authority may inter or cremate any remains upon the receipt of a written authorization of a person representing himself to be a person who has acquired the right to control the disposition of the remains.  A cemetery authority is not liable for interring or cremating pursuant to such authorization, unless it has actual notice that such representation is untrue.

     In the event the state of Washington or any of its agencies provide the funds for the disposition of any remains and the state or its agency elects to provide the funds for cremation only, the ((cemetery authority)) crematory shall not be criminally or civilly liable for cremating the remains.

If the provisions of RCW 68.50.160 do not apply, a crematory licensed under the provisions of RCW 68.05.175 or 18.39.217 shall have the right to rely on a personal representative of the decedent or the decedent's estate to execute an authority to cremate, and the crematory shall not be criminally or civilly liable for cremating the remains.