Undertaken With Love

Photo of Washington capitol dome interior by Eric in SF

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

Searchable Online General Statutes

Revised Code of Washington (external link)  

Resources Specific to Funeral Law

Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers (external link)

State Department of Health (external link)

The Washington Board of Health has recognized dry ice as refrigeration.  Unembalmed bodies in the possession of a funeral home may be removed from refrigeration for up to 24 hours for the practice of religious or cultural rituals, but there is no regulation of such matters in an individual’s home or faith community.

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

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 Washington. 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

Peoples Memorial Association, a Funeral Consumers Alliance 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?

John Eric Rolfstad has offered to keep us informed of any changes in Washington's laws that affect home funerals. He is executive director of Peoples Memorial Association.

Another great contact in Washington is Char Barrett. She is is a licensed funeral director and home funeral consultant who specializes in assisting families with directing funerals in their own homes. Her organization is known as A Sacred Moment. She has offered to create a document for this page soon about Washington families' legal rights and responsibilities when it comes to home funerals.