STAND. COM. REP. 631

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1495

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1495, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CREMATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to establish a new chapter that:

(1) Provides crematory authority license requirements;

(2) Establishes who shall have the right to serve as an authorizing agent for the decedent;

(3) Prohibits a crematory authority from cremating human remains until it has received an authorization form signed by an authorizing agent;

(4) Defines recordkeeping requirements for a crematory authority;

(5) Establishes requirements for cremation containers, caskets, temporary containers and urns, and procedures for cremation and the disposition of cremated remains;

(6) Provides immunity from civil liability for a funeral director or crematory authority that performs cremations in accordance with the chapter;

(7) Creates civil liability for damage resulting from cremations where a pacemaker or hazardous implant has not been removed from human remains;

(8) Provides criminal penalties for violation of the chapter; and

(9) Outlines procedures to authorize, on a pre-need basis, one's own cremation and the final disposition of one's own cremated remains.

The Hawaii Funeral Directors Association and Dodo Mortuary, Inc., testified in support of this measure. The Department of Health and Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs commented on the measure.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1495, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

 

____________________________

DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair