Undertaken With Love

Photo of Rhode Island state capitol by Elizabeth Thomsen

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

Searchable Online General Statutes

State of Rhode Island General Laws

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Board of Funeral Directing/Embalming (external link)

Department of Health (external link)

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

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 Rhode Island. 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 Rhode Island, an FCA affiliate. (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?

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 Rhode Island. Please include contact information (phone, website, email).