October7. 1987
Honorable Mike Driscoll Opinion'No. JM-808
Harris County Attorney
1001 Preston, Suite 634 Re: Whether a dead body must
Houston, Texas 77002 be,transferred to a county
morgue under the direction
and supervision of a.licensed
funeral director or embalmer
Dear Mr. Driscoll:
You ask the following question:
Must dead human bodies be transferred to the
morgue under the direction and supervision
of a licensed funeral director or embalmer?
In order to put your question in context, we will set out
relevant provisions governing county medical examiners as
well as relevant provisions governing funeral directors
and embalmers.
Article 49.25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
governs inquests upon dead bodies by county medical
examiners. Cf. Code Crim. Proc. art. 49.01 (inquests upon
dead bodies by justices of the peace). Section 6 of
article 49.25 provides:
-Y medical examiner, or his duly
authorized deputy, shall be authorized, and
it shall be his duty, to hold inquests with
or without a jury within his county, in the
following cases:
1. When a person shall die within
twenty-four hours after admission to a
hospital or institution or in prison or in
jail;
2. When any - person is killed; or from
any cause dies an unnatural death, except
p. 3821
Honorable Mike Driscoll - Page 2 (TM-808
j
under sentence of the law: or dies in the
absence of one or more good witnesses:
3. When the body of a human being is
found, and the circumstances of his death
are unknown;
4. When the circumstances of the death
Of any person are such as to lead to
suspicion that he .came to his death by
unlawful means;
5. When any 'person commits suicide, or
the circumstances of his death are such as
to lead to suspicion that he committed
suicide:
6. When a person dies without having
been attended by a duly licensed and
practicing physician, and the local health
officer or registrar required to report the
cause of death under Rule 41a, Sanitary Code
of Texas, Article 4477, Revised Civil
Statutes, General Laws, 46th Legislature,
1939, page 343, does not know the cause of
death. When the local health officer or
registrar of vital statistics whose duty it
is to certify the cause of death does not
know the cause of death, he shall so notify
the medical examiner of the county in which
the death occurred and request an inquest:
and
7. When a person dies who has been
attended immediately preceding his death by
a duly licensed and practicing physician or
physicians, and such physician or physicians
are not certain as to the cause of death and
are unable to certify with certainty the
cause of death as required by Rule 40a,
Sanitary Code of Texas, Article 4477,
Revised Civil Statutes, Chapter 41, Acts,
First Called Session, 40th Legislature,
1927. In case of such uncertainty the
attending physician or physicians, or the
superintendent or general manager of the
hospital or institution in which the
deceased shall have died, shall so report to
P. 3822
. ,
Honorable Mike Driscoll - Page 3 (JM-808)
the medical examiner of the county in which
the death occurred, and request an inquest.
The inquests authorized and required by
this Article shall be held by the medical
examiner of the county in which the death
occurred.
In making such investigations and holding
such inquests, the medical examiner or an
authorized deputy may administer oaths and
take affidavits. u the absence of next of
kin or lesal renresentatives of the
eceased. the medical examiner or authorized
deoutv shall take charoe of the bodv and all
grooertv found with it. (Emphasis added.)
Section 8 of article 49.25 prohibits anyone. from
disturbing or moving a dead body without the authorization
of the medical examiner if the death occurred under
circumstances set out above in section 6:
When any death under circumstances set
out in Section 6 shall have occurred, the
body shall not be disturbed or removed from
the position in which it is found by any
person without authorization from the
medical examiner or authorized deputy,
except for the purposes of preserving such
body from loss or destruction or maintaining
the flow of traffic on a highway, railroad
or airport..
Section 9 of article 49.25, which gives the medical‘
examiner authority to perform an autopsy if necessary to
determine the cause of death, provides in part: "In
performing an autopsy the medical examiner or authorized
deputy may use the facilities of any city or county
hospital within the county or such other facilities as are
made available."
Under article 49.25, then, the Harris County Medical
Examiner has authority to have a body moved to a morgue if
he needs to do so to determine cause of death. You ask
whether the act governing funeral directors, article
4582b, V.T.C.S., requires that a licensed funeral director
or embalmer supervise the moving of the dead body in such
a situation.
p-.3823
Honorable Mike Driscoll - Page 4 :,