Current through the 2024 legislative session
Section 33-16-502 - Definitions(a) As used in this act: (i) "Accredited program of funeral service education" means a funeral service education program accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education to teach mortuary science and other funeral service related curricula;(ii) "Apprentice funeral service practitioner" means a person, who has been issued an apprentice funeral service practitioner license and is registered by the board to engage in funeral service practice, which includes all aspects of funeral directing, embalming and the final disposition of human remains, under the supervision of a funeral service practitioner licensed by the board;(iii) "Board" means the Wyoming state board of funeral service practitioners;(iv) "Chemical disposer" means a licensed funeral service practitioner who is also licensed by the board as a person permitted to dispose of human remains by chemical disposition;(v) "Chemical disposition" means the process by which a deceased human body is reduced to a powder by use of materials other than heat and evaporation;(vi) "Chemical disposition facility" means any building or facility or part thereof engaging in the chemical disposition of human remains;(vii) "Conviction" means a finding or verdict of guilt, an admission of guilt or a plea of nolo contendere;(viii) "Cremated remains" means all human remains recovered after the completion of a cremation, including pulverization that leaves only bone fragments reduced to unidentifiable dimensions;(ix) "Cremation" means a technical process, using heat, which reduces human remains to bone fragments. The reduction takes place through heat and evaporation. Cremation does not include other processes of disposition, chemical or otherwise;(x) "Cremation chamber" means an enclosed space within which a cremation process takes place;(xi) "Cremation container" means a container in which the human remains are placed in a cremation chamber for a cremation;(xii) "Crematory" means the building or portion of a building that houses the cremation chamber and the holding facility;(xiii) "Disposition" means the final disposal of a dead human body by: (A) Traditional burial or earth interment;(D) Burial at sea or in any body of water, as approved by applicable law;(E) Delivery to a medical institution or to another legally authorized person or entity as a full body donation;(F) Chemical disposition; or(xiv) "Embalming" means the disinfecting, preparing or preserving for final disposition of dead human bodies, in whole or in part, or any attempt to do so, by the use or application of chemical substances, fluids or gases on the body, or by the introduction of the same into the body by vascular or hypodermic injection or by direct introduction into organs or cavities, or by any other method or process. "Embalming" does not include setting features for the purpose of identification of an unembalmed dead human body or disinfecting a dead human body through non-arterial methods;(xv) "Funeral director" means a person who assumes the responsibility for the operations of a particular funeral establishment or multiple funeral establishments, or crematory or multiple crematories, or a chemical disposition facility or multiple chemical disposition facilities, who ensures that the funeral establishment, crematory or chemical disposition facility complies with this chapter and all other laws under which the funeral establishment, crematory or chemical disposition facility is operated, who is permitted by law to perform funeral directing and who:(A) Has been licensed prior to July 1, 2014 by the board of embalming as a funeral director; or(B) Is a licensed funeral service practitioner.(xvi) "Funeral establishment," "mortuary," "funeral home" or "funeral chapel" means a place of business which has been issued a funeral establishment permit by the board to conduct business at a specific street address or location which is devoted to the embalming of dead human bodies for burial, cremation, chemical disposition, transportation or other disposition;(xvii) "Funeral service practice," means the all-encompassing combined practice of funeral directing or undertaking, and embalming, and includes the practice of conducting and overseeing all activities related to the disposition of human remains. "Funeral service practice" includes all of the following unless exempted from this act pursuant to W.S. 33-16-529: (A) Counseling individuals, families or next of kin about the final disposition of human remains;(B) Directing or supervising funerals;(C) Providing for or maintaining a funeral establishment;(D) Making pre-need or at-need contractual arrangements for funerals, memorial services, celebrations of life, wakes or any similar service or activities;(E) Removal and transportation of dead human bodies from the location of death or any other location for the purpose of final disposition;(F) Preparing dead human bodies for viewing or final disposition, other than by embalming, cremation or chemical disposition;(G) Maintaining a mortuary for the preparation, disposition or care of dead human bodies;(H) Representing oneself as or using in connection with one's name the title of funeral director, mortician, funeral service practitioner or any other title implying that the person is engaged in the business of funeral directing; and(J) Obtaining burial or removal permits or assuming other duties incidental to the practice of embalming.(xviii) "Funeral service practitioner" means a person licensed under this act to practice the profession historically known as undertaking, mortuary science or embalming, including individuals formerly licensed as funeral directors or embalmers who meet the educational requirements set forth in this act required of funeral service practitioners;(xix) "Human remains" means the body of a deceased person or part of a body or limb that has been removed from a deceased person, including the body, part of a body or limb in any stage of decomposition. The following are not "human remains": (A) The cremated remains of any human;(B) Powder resulting from chemical disposition of a human body;(C) Any body part removed and held for testing, research or other medical or law enforcement purposes; or(D) Hair or nail clippings.(xx) "This act" means W.S. 33-16-501 through 33-16-537.Amended by Laws 2022 , ch. 25, § 1, eff. 7/1/2022.Amended by Laws 2015 , ch. 70, § 1, eff. 3/2/2015.Added by Laws 2014 , ch. 31, § 1, eff. 7/1/2014.