Undertaken With Love

Photo of Oregon State Capitol by gmeador

This state's status: Oregon does not restrict the right of families to care for their own dead--but is considering legislation that would restrict the activities of home funeral educators and guides as well as funeral consumer advocates.

On May 12, 2009, the state Senate passed SB 799, which carries this language:

“(3) An individual may not practice as a death care consultant unless the individual is licensed as a death care consultant under section 4 of this 2009 Act. Regardless of any title used by the individual, an individual practices as a death care consultant if the individual offers, for payment, consultations or workshops to individuals or groups regarding funeral or final disposition services.”

"There are death midwives and death doulas, eco funerals, and cornstarch coffins," said Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, who sponsored the bill, told The Oregonian in an interview, "Right now, there's no regulatory agency overseeing this and there's no license required for these people."

In that interview, Walker said the bill aims to protect "the memory and dignity of those who have passed, as well as protecting those who grieve."

The measure passed the Senate 20-7 and now goes to the House rules committee for consideration.

As written, the legislation would require licensure for any "death care consultant" who earns income from helping families plan their final arrangement. Licensure would be regulated by the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board, a funeral trade industry dominated agency whose members do not include any home funeral guides. It may even put at jeopardy Funeral Consumers Alliance of Oregon since FCA chapters often charge fees to cover the costs of workshops they put on related to consumer options in death care.

The legislation is opposed by Funeral Consumers Alliance on the grounds that it infringes on the first amendment rights of families and consumer organizations. Holly Stevens of Undertaken With Love also has contacted Oregon legislators to express her concern that subjecting home funeral guides to the authority of a regulatory board dominated by funeral trade insiders will encourage actions that merely protect the turf of funeral homes rather than the interests of consumers and families.

Whether or not home funeral guides who earn income from their consultations and workshops should be regulated by the state is an issue on which not even all home funeral guides agree. In talking to a number of home funeral educators, Holly has found that opinions on appropriate oversight range from state licensure by a separate board composed of home funeral guides, to voluntary accreditation of home funeral guides by a home funeral professional association, to no oversight. However, there seems to be a consensus among home funeral guides Holly Stevens has talked to that the Oregon bill is particularly unfair to home funeral guides because it places them under the authority of commercial funeral providers with no representation. 

If you are from Oregon, please contact your House Representative to express your views on this bill.

Searchable Online General Statutes

Oregon Revised Statutes (external link)

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Oregon Mortuary & Cemetery Board (external link)

State Public Health Division (external link)

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

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 Oregon. Or if there is none, write a summary document regarding your findings to share here! (See North Carolina and South Carolina for examples.)

Organizations and Individuals

Funeral Consumers Alliance of Oregon (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?

Reverend Elisabeth Freise-Mick is a source for information about home funerals in Oregon. Besides her family, she says the three areas she is most passionate about are death and dying, the arts, and herbalism and medicinal plants. She is an ordained minister, trained death midwife and home funeral guide.