Section 43l – Abating or Enjoining Nuisance
Section 43L. Any cemetery, community mausoleum or columbarium established, maintained or operated in violation of or contrary to any provision of this chapter shall be a nuisance and may be abated or enjoined as such at the suit of any taxpayer of the commonwealth.
Section 43m – Permanent Disposition of Dead Bodies or Remains
Section 43M. Except as otherwise provided by law, or in case of a dead body being rightfully carried through or removed from the commonwealth for the purpose of burial or disposition elsewhere, every dead body of a human being dying within the commonwealth, and the remains of any body after dissection therein, shall be decently […]
Section 43n – Penalties; Violations of This Chapter
Section 43N. Whoever fails to comply with or violates any provision of this chapter in respect to the establishment, maintenance or operation of a cemetery, community mausoleum, crematory or columbarium, or to the disposal of dead human bodies, shall, unless another penalty is provided by this chapter, be punished by a fine of not less […]
Section 43o – Sale of Monuments for Cemetery Lots by Cemetery Corporations
Section 43O. The following corporations owning or operating cemeteries shall not sell or engage in the business of selling monuments for cemetery lots:— Municipal corporations, cemetery corporations organized under general laws, and cemetery corporations organized by acts of incorporation passed since March eleventh, eighteen hundred and thirty-one. This act shall be deemed an amendment of […]
Section 44 – Cremation of Bodies
[See Order of the Commissioner of Public Health, dated March 23, 2020, (2019 MA EO H20-9) related to the COVID-19 State of Emergency, for potential impact on the terms of this section.] Section 44. The body of a deceased person shall not be cremated within 48 hours after his decease unless he died of a […]
Section 44a – Receptacles for Cremated Remains; Caskets
Section 44A. The body of a deceased person to be cremated shall be contained in a suitable receptacle; provided, however, that a casket shall not be used for such cremation unless such use has been requested by a person lawfully entitled to the custody and control of such body.
Section 45 – Burial Permits; Permits for Removal of Bodies; Certificates of Death; Deceased Veterans
Section 45. Except as provided in sections forty-four and forty-six, no undertaker or other person shall bury or otherwise dispose of a human body in a town, or remove therefrom a human body which has not been buried, until he has received a permit from the board of health or its agent appointed to issue […]
Section 45a – Funeral Director's Name Used in Connection With Death Certificate or Burial Permit
Section 45A. No funeral director, whether doing business as an individual, partnership or corporation, shall permit his name to be used in connection with any death certificate or burial permit unless he was specifically engaged to perform the burial to which such permit or certificate relates. Any violation of this section shall be punished by […]
Section 46 – Permit for Burial of Bodies Brought Into Commonwealth; Certificate; Recording
Section 46. Whenever a dead body is brought into the commonwealth for burial, accompanied by a removal permit issued under the laws of the state from which such body is brought, such permit shall be received as sufficient authority for burial, and the superintendent or person or persons in charge of the cemetery where the […]
Section 46a – Veterans; Burial; Affidavit; Veteran Graves Officer
Section 46A. No permit for the burial or other disposition of the body of a deceased veteran, known to be such, as the term veteran is defined in section twenty-one of chapter thirty-one, shall be issued unless and until an affidavit, as hereinafter set forth, shall have been filed with the board of health, or […]