Cremation in Ohio: what has to happen before it can go ahead

The twenty-four hour rule and the paperwork behind it

ORC 4717.23 states that no crematory operator or crematory facility shall cremate or allow the cremation of a body until all of several things have occurred. The first is that at least twenty-four hours have elapsed since the death as indicated on a complete, non-provisional death certificate filed under ORC 3705.16. The second is that the facility has received a burial or burial-transit permit that authorises the cremation. The third is a completed cremation authorisation form, and the fourth is any other documentation the state or a political subdivision requires.

There is one exception to the waiting period, and it is narrow: where the person died from a virulent communicable disease and the department of health or the board of health with jurisdiction requires by rule or order that the cremation happen sooner. A funeral home that tells you the wait can be shortened for convenience is describing something the statute does not provide for.

The practical effect is that the delay families notice between a death and a cremation is usually not the crematory's schedule. It is a death certificate that has to be complete and non-provisional, and a permit that has to be issued, before the clock the statute sets can even be counted.

Embalming is a choice, not an Ohio mandate

This is the single most commonly misstated point in the vertical, so here is the text. ORC 4717.13(A)(10) makes it prohibited conduct to hold a body before final disposition for more than forty-eight hours after the time of death "unless the dead human body is embalmed or placed into refrigeration and maintained at a constant temperature of less than forty degrees". That is a choice between two methods of care, not a requirement to embalm. Ohio imposes no general embalming mandate.

Federal law backs the same point from the other direction. The Federal Trade Commission states plainly that federal law does not require embalming under any circumstances, and the Funeral Rule requires a provider's price list to disclose that embalming is not required by law where that is true. A provider may not tell you that state or local law requires embalming when it does not, and may not claim it is required for practical purposes when you want a direct cremation, an immediate burial, or a closed-casket funeral with no viewing where refrigeration is available.

A provider can only charge for embalming in one of three situations: where it is legally required, where you gave prior express approval, or where an authorised person could not be reached after due diligence. Express permission means express: the FTC's guidance says it cannot be implied.

Containers, and what nobody may require you to buy

If a provider offers direct cremation, the Funeral Rule requires it to make an alternative container available and to tell you that such containers exist. An alternative container encases the body and can be made of materials such as fibreboard or composition materials, with or without an outside covering, and the price list has to name the ones that provider stocks.

A provider may not tell you that state or local law requires you to buy a casket for a direct cremation, and may not tell you a casket is required for any other reason either. The Rule extends the same prohibition to crematories, which may not require a casket for a direct cremation, though they are allowed to set standards for the kinds of alternative container they will accept. If a price for a direct cremation only makes sense once a casket has been added to it, that is the point to ask which of the three permitted categories of charge the casket falls into.

At the crematory, and afterwards

ORC 4717.26 sets duties inside the facility: holding and refrigeration requirements, no cremation of more than one body simultaneously without written authorisation, no removal of a body from its container without authorisation, and no shipping of cremated remains by any method that lacks both tracking and a signed receipt on delivery. ORC 4717.28 imposes record-keeping duties on crematories and funeral homes alike.

ORC 4717.27 covers remains nobody collects. After thirty days a facility may deliver them to the person designated on the authorisation form; after sixty days it may dispose of them in a grave, crypt or niche, or by scattering them in a dignified manner. Before doing so, for a decedent aged eighteen or over, the facility must notify the secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, which then has a further sixty days to claim an eligible veteran for burial in a national cemetery at the department's expense. Commingling the remains of more than one person is prohibited except in the cases the section enumerates.

Two outer limits are worth knowing. ORC 4717.13 makes it prohibited conduct to fail knowingly to carry out final disposition within thirty days of taking custody of a body, except as ordered by the coroner or the person holding the right of disposition. The same section makes it prohibited conduct to refuse knowingly to submit custody of a body or of cremated remains promptly on the oral or written order of the person legally entitled to them.

This guide is general information from the current text of the Ohio Revised Code and the Federal Trade Commission's published guidance, read on 6 August 2026. It is not legal advice, and it describes rules rather than any business listed here. Confirm anything you intend to rely on with the Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, 77 South High Street, 16th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215-6108, (614) 466-4252.