Undertaken With Love

Photo of Massachusetts State House by Philocrites

This state's status: Massachusetts does not restrict the right of families to care for their own dead.

Searchable Online General Statutes

The General Laws of Massachusetts (external link)

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Board of Embalming and Funeral Directing

Department of Public Health

Please help us develop this section by emailing us with books or online sources specifically related to funeral law in Massachusetts.

In general, regulations promulgated by departments of health, such as required procedures in filing death certificates, must be followed by families caring for their own dead, while regulations promulgated by funeral service regulatory boards are binding only on funeral providers (but may affect home funerals indirectly to the extent that a family chooses to engage the limited services of licensed providers or in a few states is required to do so).

Resources Specific to Home Funeral Laws

Please help us develop this section by emailing us with books or online sources specifically related to home funerals in Massachusetts.

Organizations and Individuals

Funeral Consumers Alliance chapters (external link). Because FCA chapters are composed of volunteers, their expertise and experience related to home funeral laws vary considerably from one to the next. All of them, however, welcome home funeral practitioners and advocates and are eager to learn from them. If you find that you are accumulating knowledge that is lacking in your closest chapter, why don't you volunteer to be its resource for funeral consumers on home funeral laws in your state?

Carol Coan is a home funeral advocate in Massachusetts who has offered to keep us informed should there be any changes in legislation in her state affecting home funerals.

Please help us develop this section by emailing us with the names of organizations and individuals that serve as noncommercial resources to families serving as their own funeral directors in Massachusetts. Please include contact information (phone, website, email).