BILL REQ. #:  H-1461.1 

READ FIRST TIME 02/10/11.   

     AN ACT Relating to embalmers; and amending RCW 68.50.070.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 68.50.070 and 1959 c 23 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Any ((sheriff, coroner, keeper or superintendent of a county poorhouse, public hospital, county jail, or state institution shall)) public agency required to provide for the disposition of human remains in any legal manner at public expense must surrender the ((dead bodies of persons required to be buried at the public expense,)) human remains to:
     (a) Any physician or surgeon, to be ((by him)) used for the advancement of anatomical science, preference being given to medical schools in this state, for their use in the instruction of medical students; or
     (b) An accredited educational institution offering funeral services and embalming programs for use in training embalming students under the supervision of an embalmer licensed under chapter 18.39 RCW.
     (2) If the deceased person ((during his last sickness)) requested to be buried, or if ((within thirty days after his death)) some person claiming to be a relative or a responsible officer of a ((church)) religious organization with which the deceased at the time of ((his)) death was affiliated requires the ((body)) remains to be buried, ((his body shall)) the remains must be buried, subject to the requirements of RCW 68.50.110 and 68.50.230.