The Outdated Burial Law Pennsylvania Still Has

Pennsylvania is certainly one of the places of all time. It's got that historical Liberty Bell with the famous crack in it, lots of Amish who've cornered the boutique wooden furniture market, and, uh ... Give us a second, we'll think of something. Ah yes, weird laws. Not that weird laws are unique to Pennsylvania, but it does have its fair share of odd ones (though some you've probably heard of are not actually real). We've got the no cannon shooting at weddings law, no pretending to be a fortune-teller in order to get paid law (only authentic mediums, please), no bringing donkeys or mules on trolleys in Pittsburgh law, no pets in areas where food is being made law (assumedly in restaurants, which makes sense), and more. And then we've got laws about corpses. Namely: They've got to be embalmed or refrigerated if they're not buried within 24 hours. 

Okay, a law insisting that bodies be stored properly if not buried quickly isn't too strange. We all know what happens to dead organic matter when a body starts to decompose, right? It rots, ravens pay a visit, worms and maggots say hello, etc. An article published by StatPearls says that microbe activity within a human body peaks at 24 hours. This is when a body starts to turn green, putrefaction starts to set in, and the skin appears to "marble" because of discolored blood vessels. The problem with Pennsylvania Code Title 49 § 13.201 isn't needing to store a body in general, it's the time limit. It forces families to make implausibly quick decisions following the death of a loved one, or else have a funeral within 24 hours.

The specifics of Pennsylvania Code Title 49 § 13.201 are indeed specific. Dating to 1973, the entirety of this one block of law code relates to "professional responsibilities" of funeral directors. Yes, the death of a loved one ought to require the strictest, most mindful set of procedures conducted by the most tactful people. But even taking such considerations into account, § 13.201 seems oddly specific, down to requirements about time, temperature, and methods of bodily storage.

We said that the law code requires bodies to be buried within 24 hours if not embalmed or refrigerated. This is more of a consequence of the code than anything explicitly stated. Title 49 § 13.201 says that human remains kept up to 24 hours after death must be "embalmed or sealed in a container that will not allow fumes or odors to escape or kept under refrigeration." It also says that the temperature of the refrigeration must be between 35 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And once a body is removed from refrigeration, it must be buried, cremated, or entombed within 5 hours. And if a body has been refrigerated for over 36 hours, it can't be viewed at a wake. 

All together, these strictures require a bit of interpretation. As U.S. Funerals Online explains, the law essentially forces families to bury a body within 24 hours unless it's stored according to the above-cited, legally prescribed methods. This can be extremely meddlesome and stressful for families to organize during a hectic, heart-breaking time of mourning. Even burying a body within 24 hours is way, way too fast for most.

As with all strange laws, Pennsylvania's 24-hour burial law seems strange because the rationale behind it isn't clear. Was there a health scare related to contagious diseases in the 1970s? Not necessarily, because Pennsylvania Code Title 28 § 1.23 (dating to 1979) says that bodies that have not died — not — from contagious diseases must be embalmed or refrigerated. And then there's the 36-hour wake-viewing limit for unembalmed bodies even when a body has been refrigerated. That's certainly not enough time to contact loved ones, book a place, get all the arrangements in order, and except anyone to show up who doesn't live nearby. This makes Title 49 § 13.201 seem weirdly heartless, which is doubly weird considering that points two through five of the code focus on issues of care, confidentiality, respecting a family's belief, and so forth. So what gives?

The truth is: We really have no idea. Some possibilities for the law's creation include needing to expedite the burial process because of X, Y, Z business reasons, an increased volume of dead people for some unknown reason, a reduced volume of funeral homes for some unknown reason, or problems with managing cemetery plots, also for some unknown reason. But there's good news: U.S. Funerals Online says that, despite all the legal hubbub, no one really pays attention to Title 49 § 13.201. That is, the embalmment and refrigeration requirements aren't strictly enforced. This is good, because the last thing that grieving families need is to be rushed through the mourning process.