No dead body or part thereof shall be kept in said District in such manner as to give rise to any offensive odors to the annoyance of any person or persons in the neighborhood or to the public, nor so as to be exposed to the public view; nor shall any such body or part thereof be permitted by the person or persons having custody or control of it to remain unburied for a longer period than 1 week after death without permission of the Director of the Department of Health, unless it has been cremated or deposited in the vault of some cemetery; nor shall any person publicly exhibit in said District, for pay or otherwise, any dead body of any human being or any part of such body without a permit from the Director of the Department of Health of said District so to do, except such exhibition be in connection with some government museum or with some institution of learning permanently located in said District.
(Mar. 3, 1901, 31 Stat. 1297, ch. 854, § 677; Aug. 1, 1950, 64 Stat. 393, ch. 513, § 1; Oct. 8, 1981, D.C. Law 4-34, §§ 29(c)(2), 30(b)(1), 28 DCR 3271; Mar. 2, 2007, D.C. Law 16-191, §§ 8(c), 65(c), 53 DCR 6794.)
1981 Ed., § 27-120.
1973 Ed., § 27-120.
This section is referenced in § 7-1531.21, § 43-126, and § 43-128.
D.C. Law 16-191 substituted “Health” for “Human Services”.
Structure District of Columbia Code
Title 43 - Cemeteries and Crematories
Chapter 1 - Cemetery Associations; Regulatory Provisions
§ 43–101. Incorporation; powers
§ 43–102. Powers to acquire and sell land
§ 43–103. Burial ground to be platted and surveyed
§ 43–104. Inclosure and ornamentation of land; purchase of equipment
§ 43–105. Duty to inclose and underdrain
§ 43–106. Application of proceeds of sales of lots
§ 43–107. Officers enumerated; term of office; effect of failure to choose officers
§ 43–108. Election of officers
§ 43–109. Lot owners are voting members of corporation
§ 43–111. Exemption from taxation and sale on execution
§ 43–112. Dedication of land; title vested in perpetuity
§ 43–113. Grants and bequests for care of lots
§ 43–114. Distance from City and from dwellings
§ 43–115. Mayor authorized to license certain lands for cemetery purposes
§ 43–116. Lots to be conspicuously marked; plat to be recorded; size and depth of graves
§ 43–117. Register of burials; contents
§ 43–118. Superintendent of cemetery to register at Department of Health
§ 43–119. Movement or disposal of tissue taken from dead body
§ 43–120. Keeping and exhibiting dead bodies
§ 43–123. Reopening graves; graves of pestilential disease victims
§ 43–124. Crematories; consent of property owners; permit
§ 43–125. Embalming; removal of tissue immediately after death
§ 43–128. Court-ordered disinterment or disposal of ashes not affected
§ 43–129. Cremation required in certain cases. [Repealed]
§ 43–130. Public crematory established. [Repealed]
§ 43–131. Act for promotion of anatomical science not affected by crematory law