Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Consumer Protection and Commerce and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1495 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish a new chapter which:

1. Provides crematory authority license requirements;
2. Establishes who shall have the right to serve as an authorizing agent for the decedent;
3. Prohibits a crematory authority from cremating human remains until it has received an authorization form signed by an authorizing agent;
4. Defines recordkeeping requirements for a crematory authority;
5. Establishes requirements for cremation containers, caskets, temporary containers and urns, and procedures for cremation and the disposition of cremated remains;
6. Provides immunity from civil liability for a funeral director or crematory authority that performs cremations in accordance with the chapter;
7. Creates civil liability for damages resulting from cremations where a pacemaker or hazardous implant has not been removed from human remains;
8. Provides criminal penalties for violation of the chapter; and
9. Outlines procedures to authorize, on a pre-need basis, one's own cremation and the final disposition of one's own cremated remains.

Dodo Mortuary and the Hawaii Funeral Directors Association submitted testimony in support of this bill. Moanalua Mortuary and Affordable Caskets, and Nuuanu Memorial Park offered testimony in support of intent of this bill. Memorial Society of Hawaii and Ultimate Cremation Services of Hawaii submitted testimony in opposition to this bill.

Your Committees find that establishing crematory licensing, record keeping, and procedural requirements will protect consumers and surviving family members and preserve the public's trust with respect to the provision of death care by crematory authorities.

Your Committees has amended this measure by changing its effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on this matter.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Consumer Protection and Commerce and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1495, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1495, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.