DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES  
BUREAU OF DISEASE CONTROL, PREVENTION AND EPIDEMIOLOGY  
TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSITION OF DEAD BODIES  
(By authority conferred on the department of health and human services by section 2226 of 1978  
PA 368, MCL 333.2226, section 2233 of 1978 PA 368, MCL 333.2233; by section 2678 of 1978  
PA 368, MCL 333.2678; and by Executive Reorganization Orders No. 2015-1 and No. 2015-4.)  
R 325.1 Preparation and transportation of bodies dead from certain causes; permission for  
public funeral.  
Rule 1. (1) The bodies of those who have died of diphtheria, meningococcic infections, plague,  
poliomyelitis, scarlet fever, or smallpox shall not be transported or accepted for transportation  
unless they have been prepared for shipment by being thoroughly embalmed and disinfected by  
arterial and cavity injection with an accepted embalming fluid. This preparation must be effected  
by an embalmer licensed with the state of Michigan.  
(2) When bodies are transported under this rule, notice must be sent by the shipping embalmer  
to the health officer of the jurisdiction where the body is to be received, advising the date and time  
of arrival.  
(3) Public funerals may be conducted, provided that prior permission is obtained from the local  
health officer. When permission is granted, persons in isolated areas may be released for the  
purpose of accompanying the body to a funeral home, church, or cemetery, provided that they do  
all of the following:  
(a) Use a separate car or means of conveyance.  
(b) Remain in a separate room or separate from the public and avoid proximity to others in  
attendance.  
(c) Return to the area or isolation and remain there until premises are released from isolation and  
quarantine.  
History: 2016 AACS.  
R 325.2 Transportation of certain bodies in sound shipping cases; preparation for shipment;  
burial-transit or disinterment permit.  
Rule 2. Bodies dead from a cause not named in R 325.1 that will reach their destination within  
48 hours from the time of death, or are addressed to the demonstrator of anatomy of a medical  
college or for other demonstration purposes, may be received for transportation when encased in  
a sound shipping case. If the body is not so addressed or cannot reach its destination within 48  
hours it must be prepared for shipment as described in R 325.1. When dead bodies are shipped by  
common carrier, a burial-transit or disinterment permit shall be securely fastened upon the outside  
box, and a duplicate of the permit shall be supplied by the funeral director to the person escorting  
the body, or, if there is no escort, a duplicate of the permit shall be mailed to the receiving funeral  
director.  
History: 2016 AACS.  
Page 1  
R 325.3 Burial-transit permit.  
Rule 3. The Michigan department of health and human services may authorize a registrars,  
mortuary science, and funeral director licensees to have full authority to make out and sign a new  
burial-transit permit where a dead human body is transferred beyond the destination point as given  
on the burial-transit permit which accompanies the body. The same applies to cases where bodies  
are placed in a cemetery vault and transferred at some later date. The original burial-transit permit  
which accompanies the body must be given to the registrar, mortuary science, or funeral director  
licensee before a new burial-transit permit is made by the person authorizing the transfer. The  
person issuing the new permit must indicate the point of destination on the original burial-transit  
permit. When a mortuary science or funeral director licensee issues a new burial-transit permit,  
the original burial-transit permit must be filed within 72 hours with the registrar in whose  
jurisdiction the transfer was made.  
History: 2016 AACS.  
R 325.4 Removal of body from incorporated or unincorporated area; death or stillbirth  
certificate; burial-transit permit; duty of county clerk.  
Rule 4. (1) When a mortuary science or funeral director licensee is called upon to remove a body  
from an incorporated or unincorporated area, the mortuary science or funeral director licensee may  
remove the body for the purpose of caring for it but must file a completed death or stillbirth  
certificate and secure a burial-transit permit within 72 hours from the local registrar of the  
incorporated or unincorporated area in which the death occurred.  
(2) If a death occurs in an unincorporated area, when a Sunday or a holiday or both, or when an  
immediate internment, cremation, or shipment makes it impossible to obtain a burial-transit permit  
by mail, a mortuary science or funeral director licensee may issue a burial-transit permit to him or  
herself, provided that the envelope in which the completed death or stillbirth certificate is mailed  
to the county clerk in whose jurisdiction the death occurred is postmarked within the 72 hours after  
the death occurred.  
(3) If for any other reason a burial-transit permit has not been received by mail in time for the  
interment, cremation, or shipment, the mortuary science or funeral director licensee may issue a  
burial-transit permit to him or herself, provided that the envelope in which the completed death or  
stillbirth certificate was mailed to the county clerk in whose jurisdiction the death occurred is  
postmarked within the 72 hours after the death occurred.  
(4) When a county clerk receives a death or stillbirth certificate from his or her primary  
registration district by mail, he or she shall enter on the certificate, as the date of filing, the date on  
which the certificate or certificates were received and shall also enter beneath the date of filing the  
postdate appearing on the envelope in which the certificate or certificates arrived.  
History: 2016 AACS.  
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