Undertaken With Love

Photo of South Carolina state capitol by J. Stephen Conn

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

The following is excerpted from the FCA brochure, "Caring for Your Own Dead in South Carolina," copyright ©2009 by Gere Burke Fulton and posted here with his permission. 

Caring For Your Own Dead in South Carolina: Is it Legal?

There is nothing in the South Carolina Code (laws) that requires the use of a funeral
director. The situation is governed by the Code of Regulations 61-19.

If you act as the funeral director, you must complete and file a death certificate within
five days of the death with the registrar of the county in which the death occurred. You
will fill out the biographical details, and you’ll need to get the signature of the attending physician or family physician, if any. If not, you’ll need the death certified by the county coroner.

In order to transport a dead body it is necessary to obtain a Burial-Removal-Transit (BRT) permit which, according to Section 23 of the Regulations “…shall be issued by a subregistrar or the coroner in the county in which death occurred.” The county coroner is legally required to review all deaths if a person dies 1) as a result of violence; 2) as a result of apparent homicide; 3) when in apparent good health; 4) when unattended by a physician; 5) in any suspicious or unusual manner; 6) while an inmate of a penal or correctional institution; or, 7) as a result of stillbirth when unattended by a physician.

The county coroner is authorized to issue a BRT permit to the person or persons
authorized to handle the final disposition. Some hospitals may have a policy of
referring all such requests to the coroner regardless of the circumstances under which
the death occurred.

Most deaths that would typically occur in a hospital or under hospice care—whether at
home or in a hospice facility—would not be coroner’s cases, but (at least in some
counties) coroners expect them to be reported. It’s best to check with the coroner’s office in advance if possible.

Some hospices have been designated by the South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC) as subregistrars and can issue a BRT permit. Some coroners may also be willing to issue permits in such instances.

What barriers may be confronted?

If one is interested in caring for their own dead it’s important to plan ahead. While the
practice is legal in almost every state in the country, it’s still relatively rare and you may
encounter barriers—some because of ignorance and others of intent.

While doing the research for this brochure we learned that “some” hospitals will release a body only to a funeral director or his/her removal service. While this is a violation of the law, it can be a daunting barrier for most families.

So, too, with some coroners. Because in some South Carolina counties the coroner may also be a funeral director, s/he may be unwilling to cooperate with a request to bypass services in which they or other funeral directors have a financial interest.

Because of such concerns it is highly advisable to make one’s wishes known as far in advance of death as possible. If you encounter problems such as this and there is time to intervene, the Funeral Consumers Alliance—either the SC affiliate or the national office—may be able to assist you. We would certainly like to be notified.

Unless and until hospitals become more accustomed to handling such requests, you
are likely to be met with confused or otherwise uncooperative staff.

How can the body be transported?

Once arrangements have been made with either the cemetery or the crematory, the
body can be placed into a suitable container and loaded into a SUV, van, or truck. Most
crematories require that the body arrive in a casket or alternative container so that their
staff need not handle the body directly.

Most cemeteries may require an outer burial container (vault), but it may be possible to
negotiate exceptions to this. Again, the key to all of this is making sure that you have
planned well in advance.

(end of excerpt)

Searchable Online General Statutes

South Carolina Code of Laws (external link)

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Board of Funeral Service (external link)

Department of Health and Environmental Control (external link)

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

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

Caring For Your Own Dead in South Carolina (external PDF link)

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?

Gere Burke Fulton was a contributing writer for Undertaken With Love and wrote the pamphlet "Caring For Your Own Dead in South Carolina." He lives in Columbia, S.C. 

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 South Carolina. Please include contact information (phone, website, email).