Undertaken With Love

Photo of North Carolina state capitol by marttj

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

DIY Funerals in North Carolina

by Holly Stevens

The authority for families to serve as their own funeral directors appears in § 130A‑420 of the North Carolina General Statutes: "Authority to dispose of body or body parts." Other portions of the statutes refer to "the funeral director or person acting as such."

If you are interested in caring for your own dead it’s crucial to plan ahead. While the practice is legal, it’s still relatively rare and you may encounter resistance, willful or not. If you do encounter roadblocks and there time to intervene, your local FCA affiliate may be able to help. See the organization listings at the bottom of this page.

If you act as the funeral director, you must notify your county health department of the death within 24 hours and then arrange for a death certificate to be filed within five days with the registrar of the county where the death occurred. If hospice is involved, they can handle these tasks for you. Otherwise, you will want to talk in advance with your county staff to find out what steps you will need to take, whom to contact and how. Tamma Hill, the field services manager for North Carolina Vital Records, will reassure county workers that might be hesitant to work with you. Reach her in Raleigh at (919) 715-8963 or (919) 733-3000 ext. 242, if you encounter any resistance.

If hospice is involved, they should be able to arrange for the death certificate, but it is wise to discuss this plan with hospice before death comes. If the loved one is under the care of a physician and the death is expected but hospice is not involved, tell the physician ahead of time of your plans to act as the funeral director and to claim custody of your loved one’s remains until final disposition. It helps if you have power of attorney for health care decisions, as this grants you the clear authority to make decisions regarding the care of the remains.

You and your friends may legally transport the body (only if you pay for this does the person need to be a licensed funeral transport provider). In North Carolina, you do not need a burial transit permit unless the body is under the care of the county medical examiner (as happens when the death was suspicious or unexpected) or if you will carry the body across state lines. (In those cases, the medical examiner or county registrar would provide the permit.) The typical casket can easily fit in the bed of a pickup truck or in a minivan with the rear seats removed.

Check in advance with your local newspaper if you wish to place an obituary. Papers vary in their policies regarding obituaries submitted by families.

North Carolina law does not prohibit burial on one's own private land, but some local ordinances do. For instance, it is legal in Guilford County to bury a body on your own land, but usually not in the city of Greensboro without the approval of City Council. A good place to begin your inquiry is your local health department.

Unless you are fortunate to live where you are permitted to bury your own dead on land you own, you will need to make arrangements for burial in a cemetery or cremation. If burial is your choice, you can choose immediate burial when you are ready to say goodbye. The funeral home might handle only the committal, perhaps at a negotiated lower rate since you have handled the death certificate and sheltering already.  Some cemeteries prepare their own graves so that you might be able to handle the committal yourself without a funeral home’s involvement at all. Nearly all private and municipal cemeteries require vaults or graveliners (though North Carolina law does not), but most do allow burial in a shroud without a casket. Again, ask in advance of need. If you have a plot in a church graveyard, you might be able to get permission in advance to be buried without a vault or graveliner, especially if you offer to pay a few hundred dollars to cover costs in filling in the site later as it sinks.

If you choose direct cremation, 24 hours must pass after death before cremation occurs. Most crematories require that the body arrive in a combustible container that fits their equipment; it is wise to arrange ahead of time with the crematory of your choice to make sure that your container meets their needs. (Most crematory containers are priced well below $100, so you might just choose to purchase theirs.) You may be able to negotiate a direct cremation at a lower rate since you will already have arranged for the death certificate.

Where additional advocacy is needed to support home funerals in North Carolina:

•  We need to develop a list of funeral homes that will develop policies attractive for families serving as their own funeral directors, such as the provision of limited services without charging the basic services fee, since families serving as their own funeral directors usually make the arrangements for death certificates, obituaries and ceremonies and provide the ordinary sheltering -- items normally included in the basic services fee.
• Other FCA chapters in North Carolina could follow the lead of FCA of the Piedmont in identifying gravediggers and licensed funeral transport providers willing to work directly with families. Contact Holly Stevens for ideas on how to do this.
• We need to do advance advocacy with hospitals and nursing homes regarding releasing bodies to families at death rather than licensed funeral providers.
• We need to do advance advocacy with newspapers regarding accepting obituaries from families serving as their own funeral directors.

Searchable Online General Statutes

North Carolina General Statutes

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Board of Funeral Service

Vital Records Unit of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

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).

Care of the Dead: North Carolina General Statutes and Other Laws Pertaining to the Funeral Industry in Our State

(external link) A compilation of North Carolinian and federal regulations related to the funeral industry, with searchable index, Q&A, and introduction to the North Carolina General Assembly. For funeral consumers, funeral providers, attorneys, legislators, journalists and other funeral industry observers. $19 at Lulu.

Resources Specific to Home Funeral Laws

Organizations and Individuals

Funeral Consumers Alliance chapters (external link). Because FCA chapters are composed of volunteers, 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?

Tamma Hill of the North Carolina Vital Records unit trains county public health employees in death certificate procedures. She will step in to reassure an uncertain or confused county employee who might be reluctant to work with a family making its own death certificate arrangements. She can be reached by phone at (919) 715-8963.

Crossings: Caring for Our Own at Death has a home funeral group in Greensboro and is forming a home funeral committee at New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro. Sandy LaGrega is the contact person for both.

Holly Stevens is a willing source of information on North Carolina funeral law as it relates to home funerals. She also publishes a blog, Thresholds, about alternative funeral practices in the Piedmont. Board members of Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Piedmont also can give talks regarding North Carolina funeral law as it relates to home funerals.

The Islamic Burial Society of North America, based in Raleigh, N.C., trains Muslim men and women across the country to care for their own dead in keeping with the precepts of the Quran. In the process, movement leader Ahmad-Rufai Abdullah has become well acquainted with North Carolina funeral law as it relates to religious communities caring for their own dead.

Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Piedmont maintains lists of area gravediggers and licensed funeral transport providers who will work directly with a family serving as its own funeral director without a funeral home serving as intermediary.