How do you move a body to another state for burial?

In more detail

• The death certificate first

  The funeral director files the death certificate where the death occurred, within the time limit in state law. The CDC’s handbook for funeral directors says this is also done before the body is removed from the state; when it must be filed varies by state, so ask the funeral home.

  CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Funeral Directors’ Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting (2019 revision), Death certificate: completion and filing

• The permit

  In states that require one, the funeral director must have the permit before the body is removed from the state. Some states require a permit only when the body is to leave the state. It goes with the body to the cemetery, which returns it, usually to the official who issued it.

  CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Funeral Directors’ Handbook on Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting (2019 revision), Authorization for final disposition of body or fetus (pp. 7–8)

• Embalming and refrigeration

  No state law requires routine embalming, though some states require embalming or refrigeration after a set number of hours, or for transport. Ask the funeral home in writing whether refrigeration will be accepted instead.

  Federal Trade Commission, The FTC Funeral Rule · FTC Funeral Rule, 16 CFR 453.3(a), eCFR

• Ask for the price

  The funeral home’s price list prices the transfer of the body and the hearse as separate items. Ask for the total in writing.

  Funeral Industry Practices (FTC Funeral Rule), 16 CFR 453.2(b)(4), eCFR

• Where the schools differ on moving the body

  Ḥanafī: burying the person where they died, and hurrying, are recommended. The base text says there is no harm in moving them before burial; Ibn ʿĀbidīn reports that some set no limit, some said less than a journey’s distance, and Imam Muḥammad allowed only a mile or two and disliked more, which is called the apparent view. Mālikī: allowed on three conditions: the body will not burst, its dignity is kept, and there is a benefit, such as burial among the family; if any condition fails, it is forbidden. Shāfiʿī: al-Shāfiʿī said he did not like it, except to near Makkah, Madinah or Jerusalem; some of the school called moving the body disliked, others called it forbidden, and al-Nawawī judged that the sounder view. Ḥanbalī: no harm in it, even far, for a sound purpose, if no change to the body is feared. Ask your imam.

  What the schools say about moving the body

  Dār al-Iftāʾ al-Miṣriyyah, fatwā 457 (2 August 2011): moving the dead before and after burial · Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:239 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:421 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:303 · Al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī), 2:141–142