NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1963 SESSION

CHAPTER 492
SENATE BILL 265

AN ACT TO REVISE CERTAIN SECTIONS OF THE VITAL STATISTICS LAWS OF NORTH CAROLINA.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  G.S. 130-46 is hereby amended by adding a new paragraph at the end thereof to read as follows:
"It shall be the duty of the physician making the medical certification as to the cause of death to complete the medical certification prior to interment but in no event more than seventy-two (72) hours after death. The said physician may, in appropriate cases, designate the cause of death as unknown pending an autopsy or upon some other reasonable cause for delay, with the physician designating the cause of death as unknown being responsible for sending the supplementary information to the local registrar as soon as it is obtained."
Sec. 2.  G.S. 130-49 is hereby amended by adding a new paragraph at the end thereof to read as follows:
"The State Registrar may, by regulation and upon such conditions as he may prescribe to assure compliance with the purposes of the Vital Statistics Laws of North Carolina, provide for the extension of the time periods prescribed in this Article for the filing of death certificates, fetal death certificates, medical certifications of cause of death, and for the obtaining of burial-transit permits in cases in which compliance with the applicable prescribed period would result in undue hardship."
Sec. 3.  G.S. 130-47 is hereby amended by adding a new paragraph at the end thereof to read as follows:
"No cremation of a dead body, in cases of death without medical attendance, may take place within a period of seventy-two (72) hours following death without approval of either the county medical examiner or local health director, or district solicitor of the Superior Court of the district in which the person died."
Sec. 4.  The words "funeral director" are hereby substituted for the word "undertaker" each time that the latter appears in G.S. 130-46, 130-50, 130-64, or any other Section of Chapter 130 of the General Statutes of North Carolina.
Sec. 5.  The last word in the catchline to G.S. 130-3 is hereby changed from "Article" to "Chapter".
Sec. 6.  There is hereby added to G.S. 130-3 a new subsection "h" to read as follows:
"(h)	'Funeral director' means a person licensed in accordance with the provisions of Article 13 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes of North Carolina."
Sec. 7.  Subsection (a) of G.S. 130-76 is hereby rewritten to read as follows:
"(a)	A violation of any of the provisions of this Article by any licensed embalmer or licensed funeral director shall constitute grounds for suspension or revocation of such license or licenses by the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors."
Paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of G.S. 130-76 is hereby rewritten to read as follows:
"(1)	Shall remove the dead body of a human being, or permit the same to be done, from the primary registration district in which the death occurred or the body was found without such authorization as is provided in this Article;".
Subsection (b) of G.S. 130-76 is hereby amended by adding a new subsection thereto to be numbered (5) and to read as follows: "(5) inter, cremate, remove from the State, or otherwise finally dispose of the dead body of a human being, or permit the same to be done without authority of a burial-transit permit issued by the local registrar of the district in which the death occurred or in whic'h the body was found;".
Sec. 8.  G.S. 130-69 is hereby amended by omitting the word "two" appearing after the word "make" and before the word "complete" in line 24 and substituting the words "one or more", and by rewriting the sentence on line 30 beginning with the words "The local registration shall…" to read as follows:
"The local registrar shall within seven (7) days of the date of his receipt of a certificate of birth or death transmit to the register of deeds of the county or his agent a copy of each certificate registered by him, and he may also retain one copy of the certificate for his own files. On the fifth day of each month he shall transmit to the State Registrar all original certificates registered by him for the preceding month."
Sec. 9.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.
Sec. 10.  This Act shall be in full force and effect from and after its ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 22nd day of May, 1963.