What happens to the dead in South Dakota? Bill in Legislature seeks to clarify

South Dakota has some of the weakest laws in the nation when it comes to regulating who decides what should happen to the body of someone who dies, and the vague laws are causing greater expense for survivors, creating emotional trauma for grieving families and funeral directors, and occasionally leading to contentious lawsuits.

But state lawmakers are poised to update so-called “disposition” laws to make clear who has the final say over whether a body is embalmed and buried or is cremated, and over where it should be buried or who keeps the remains.

A bill moving quickly through the legislative process, House Bill 1152, would enact eight separate sections of legal language that would spell out specifically how bodies should be handled after death. The measure is modeled on legislation developed by the National Funeral Directors Association and is backed by the South Dakota Funeral Directors Association, whose members have regularly endured stress and uncertainty when disposition challenges arise.

South Dakota laws now allow someone 18 or older to legally dictate his or her own disposition plans before death, though current law allows for challenges of those plans to be made after death. In deaths where a challenge arises, a lawsuit may result and a judge may be called on to decide disposition of a body.

Read more: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2022/02/17/south-dakota-legislature-bill-dead-burials-seeks-clarify-decisions-family/6828794001/