Okla. Stat. tit. 59 § 396.2

Current through Laws 2024, c. 453.

Section 396.2 - Definitions

As used in the Funeral Services Licensing Act:

1. "Embalmer" means a person who disinfects or preserves dead human remains, entire or in part, by the use of chemical substances, fluids or gases in the remains, or by the introduction of same into the remains by vascular or hypodermic injection, or by direct application into organs or cavities;

2. "Funeral director" means a person who:

a. is engaged in or conducts or represents themselves as being engaged in preparing for the burial or disposal and directing and supervising the burial or disposal of dead human remains,

b. is engaged in or conducts or represents themselves as being engaged in maintaining a funeral establishment for the preparation and the disposition, or for the care of dead human remains,

c. uses, in connection with the name of the person or funeral establishment, the words "funeral director" or "undertaker" or "mortician" or any other title implying that the person is engaged as a funeral director,

d. sells funeral service merchandise to the public, or

e. is responsible for the legal and ethical operation of a crematory;

3. "Funeral establishment" means a place of business used in the care and preparation for burial, commercial embalming, or transportation of dead human remains, or any place where any person or persons shall hold forth and be engaged in the profession of undertaking or funeral directing;

4. "Apprentice" means a person who is engaged in learning the practice of embalming or the practice of funeral directing, as the case may be, under the instruction and personal supervision of a duly licensed embalmer or a duly licensed funeral director of and in the State of Oklahoma, pursuant to the provisions of the Funeral Services Licensing Act, and who is duly registered as such with said Board;

5. "Board" means the Oklahoma Funeral Board;

6. "Directing a funeral" or "funeral directing" means directing funeral services from the time of the first call until final disposition or release to a common carrier or release to next of kin of the deceased or the designee of the next of kin;

7. "First call" means the beginning of the relationship and duty of the funeral director to take charge of dead human remains and have such remains prepared by embalming, cremation, or otherwise, for burial or disposition, provided all laws pertaining to public health in this state are complied with. First call does not include calls made by ambulance, when the person dispatching the ambulance does not know whether or not dead human remains are to be picked up;

8. "Personal supervision" means the physical presence of a licensed funeral director or embalmer at the specified time and place of the providing of acts of funeral service;

9. "Commercial embalming establishment" means a fixed place of business consisting of an equipped preparation room, and other rooms as necessary, for the specified purpose of performing preparation and shipping services of dead human remains to funeral establishments inside and outside this state;

10. "Funeral service merchandise or funeral services" means those products and services normally provided by funeral establishments and required to be listed on the General Price List of the Federal Trade Commission, 15 U.S.C., Section 57a(a), including, but not limited to, the sale of burial supplies and equipment, but excluding the sale by a cemetery of lands or interests therein, services incidental thereto, markers, memorials, monuments, equipment, crypts, niches or outer enclosures;

11. "Outer enclosure" means a grave liner, grave box, or grave vault;

12. "Funeral director in charge" means an individual licensed as both a funeral director and embalmer designated by a funeral service establishment, commercial embalming establishment, or crematory who is responsible for the legal and ethical operation of the establishment and is accountable to the Board;

13. "Authorizing agent" means a person legally entitled to order the cremation or final disposition of particular human remains pursuant to Section 1151 or 1158 of Title 21 of the Oklahoma Statutes;

14. "Cremation" means the technical process, using heat and flame, or heat and pressure, that reduces human remains to essential elements, including bone fragments. The reduction takes place through heat and evaporation. Cremation shall include, but not be limited to, the processing and pulverization of the bone fragments, or through alkaline hydrolysis;

15. "Crematory" means a structure containing a furnace or alkaline hydrolysis vessel used or intended to be used for the cremation of human remains. The term includes a facility that cremates human remains through alkaline hydrolysis; and

16. "Alkaline hydrolysis" means the reduction of human remains to bone fragments and essential elements in a licensed crematory using heat, pressure, water and base chemical agents.

Okla. Stat. tit. 59, § 396.2

Amended by Laws 2021 , c. 148, s. 1, eff. 11/1/2021.

Amended by Laws 2013 , c. 97, s. 1, eff. 11/1/2013.

Laws 1941, HB 73, p. 235, § 3, emerg. eff. 5/20/1941; Amended by Laws 1963, c. 117, §2, emerg. eff. 5/31/1963; Amended by Laws 1999 , SB 86, c. 64, §2, emerg. eff. 7/1/1999; Amended by Laws 2003 , HB 1270, c. 57, §3, emerg. eff. 4/10/2003.