SB221 amends Kentucky’s abuse-of-a-corpse statute to expand and clarify conduct that constitutes the offense. Under the bill, a person commits abuse of a corpse not only by intentionally treating a corpse in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities, but also by entering into a paid contract to prepare, bury, or cremate a corpse and then deliberately failing to perform that service as agreed. The bill also adds a prohibition on knowingly buying, selling, transferring, or offering to buy, sell, or transfer a corpse or any part of a corpse for remuneration or other consideration after the corpse has been authorized for final disposition through cremation or burial.
Impact
The bill amends KRS 525.120 and broadens the statute’s reach to cover funeral-service misconduct and post-disposition trafficking in corpses or body parts. It would make deliberate nonperformance of contracted burial or cremation services, as well as commercial transactions involving a corpse after authorization for final disposition, punishable as abuse of a corpse, which remains a Class D felony. The practical effect is to give prosecutors clearer authority over funeral home fraud, mishandling of remains, and illicit commercial dealings involving human remains.
Sentiment
The available voting history suggests strong support for the measure: the Senate passed the bill on third reading by a unanimous 31-0 vote. No committee transcript is available, but the lack of recorded opposition and the unanimous floor vote indicate broad agreement that the bill addresses serious misconduct involving human remains and strengthens existing protections for families and the deceased.
Contention
No specific points of contention are reflected in the available materials. Based on the bill text, any debate would likely center on whether the new language is sufficiently precise in distinguishing criminal conduct from ordinary service failures, and on the scope of the prohibition against transactions involving corpses or body parts after final disposition has been authorized. However, the recorded vote shows no visible opposition in the Senate.