Sponsored by:
Assemblyman STERLEY S. STANLEY
District 18 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Provides for regulation of funeral arranging.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the practice of funeral arranging and supplementing P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.) and amending various parts of the statutory law.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. The statutory framework for the licensure of funeral service professionals dates back almost 70 years ago to the Mortuary Science Act, P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.), in an era when New Jersey was very different from the culturally and religiously diverse State that exists today, and when consumers had far less choice in all aspects of daily life, including funeral arrangements.
b. While prior to the enactment of the Mortuary Science Act, funeral service professionals had options to be licensed as funeral directors, embalmers, or both, the law enacted in 1952 established a unified licensing system, under which licensed funeral service professionals, defined as practitioners of mortuary science, must be proficient in both funeral directing, otherwise known as funeral arts, and embalming, known as funeral science.
c. While the current funeral professional licensing system serves the traditional but rapidly disappearing New Jersey well, it has become abundantly clear that for religious, cultural, environmental, and personal philosophy reasons, a steadily increasing number of funerals center around cremation or burial without embalming.
d. The current funeral professional licensing system does not recognize that some religions forbid embalming prior to burial or cremation, an oversight that New Jerseys flourishing diversity makes even more pronounced.
e. A developing interest in green burials incorporating environmentally-friendly measures into end-of-life rituals may also reduce the prevalence of embalming.
f. The existing funeral professional licensing system, by requiring proficiency in embalming for licensure as a funeral professional, discourages entry into the funeral services profession of persons who are reluctant to practice embalming but would be eager to serve their communities by arranging funerals.
g. During the last several years, and particularly during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic, it has become clear that there is a shortage of licensed funeral service professionals in New Jersey, a problem which, in part, could be remedied by removing outmoded barriers to entering the funeral services profession.
h. Therefore, it is in the public interest to revise the existing system of funeral professional licensure to more readily accommodate religious and cultural beliefs as well as to promote consumer choice, by providing for, in addition to the current licensure of practitioners of mortuary science, the licensure of funeral arrangers.
2. Section 3 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-34) is amended to read as follows:
3. As used in [this act] P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.):
(a) "Board" means the State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey.
(b) "Embalming" means the disinfecting or preservation of a dead human body, entirely or in part by the use of chemical substances, fluids or gases in the body, or by introduction of the same into the body by vascular or hypodermic injection, or by direct application into the organs or cavities.
(c) "Funeral directing" means (1) the engaging in or conducting or holding one's self out as being engaged in or conducting the preparation (other than embalming) for burial or disposal and the direction or supervision of burial or disposal of dead human bodies; or (2) maintaining, using or operating a mortuary; or (3) in connection with one's name or mortuary using the words "mortician" or "funeral director" or "undertaker" or any other words or title of like import or signification.
"Funeral directing" also means the engaging in or making, or holding one's self out as being engaged in or making, funeral arrangements, including at need funeral arrangements or preneed funeral arrangements; or the offering or holding one's self out as offering the opportunity to purchase or enroll in a prepaid funeral agreement. As used in this definition, "funeral arrangements," "at need funeral arrangements," "preneed funeral arrangements" and "prepaid funeral agreement" shall have the same meaning as they are defined in section 1 of P.L.1993, c.147 (C.45:7-82).
(d) "Mortuary science" means embalming and funeral directing, as the same are herein defined.
(e) "Embalmer" means a qualified person who practices or engages in embalming, as the same is herein defined.
(f) "Funeral director" includes "undertaker" and "mortician" and means a qualified person who practices or engages in funeral directing, as the same is herein defined.
(g) "Practitioner of mortuary science" means a qualified person who practices or engages in mortuary science, as the same is herein defined and who (1) shall be licensed under the provisions of [this act] P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.) as a practitioner of mortuary science, or (2) holds a license as both an embalmer and a funeral director under the provisions of any prior law or laws of this State, or (3) holds a license as an embalmer under the provisions of any prior law or laws of this State and shall have been licensed under the provisions of section 21 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-52) as a funeral director, or (4) holds a license as a funeral director under the provisions of any prior law or laws of this State and shall have been licensed under the provisions of section 21 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-52) as an embalmer.
(h) "Mortuary" means any place or premises devoted to or used in the care and preparation for burial, disposition, or transportation of dead human bodies, or any specifically designated location or address where any person or persons shall hold forth that he, she, or they are engaged in the practice of mortuary science, embalming or funeral directing, and shall mean and include any premises of any kind whatsoever in which mortuary science in any of its branches is practiced or in which more than five funerals may be conducted in any calendar year, except publicly owned buildings, places of worship and meeting places of fraternal organizations.
(i) "Registered trainee" means a person who is duly registered with the board and who is engaged in the State of New Jersey in learning to practice as a practitioner of mortuary science or as a funeral arranger under the personal instruction and supervision of a person duly licensed as a practitioner of mortuary science or as a funeral arranger and who has an annual case volume as hereinafter provided in section 18 of [this act] P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.). A person seeking licensure in funeral arranging may learn to practice as a registered trainee in funeral arranging from a licensed practitioner in mortuary science, provided that such training solely focuses on funeral directing, or from a licensed funeral arranger.
(j) Funeral arranger means a person who practices or engages in funeral directing, as defined in this section, and is licensed pursuant to the provisions of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.).
(cf: P.L.1993, c.147, s.14)
3. Section 4 of P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-35) is amended to read as follows:
4. There is hereby created in the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety a State Board of Mortuary Science of New Jersey, which board shall consist of 13 members as follows: two shall be public members and one shall