When a person dies in the City and County of San Francisco, and it is the intention of the person whose duty it is to dispose of the body to cremate it, there must be filed on a form prescribed by the Department of Public Health an application for a permit to cremate said body signed by the Department of Public Health or his agents.
(a) Applications and Permits. The person applying must file with the proper officer a certificate, signed by a physician, or a Coroner, or two reputable citizens, setting forth as near as possible the name, age, color, place of birth, occupation, date, locality and cause of death of the deceased.
After the application and certificate are filed, the duly authorized agent of the Department of Public Health shall immediately inquire into the circumstances relating to the death, and within 12 hours after such application is filed, shall report, in writing, to the Department of Public Health as to whether, in his opinion, death resulted from natural causes and whether there are reasons why said body should be cremated.
When said report is filed and sufficient reasons are not given why cremation should not take place, the Director of Public Health shall issue a written permit for the cremation.
A permit shall not be given to cremate a body upon which a Coroner's inquest is pending until the cause of death has been attested by the proper authority-except any part of a body, or the contents of a body proposed to be cremated may be removed and preserved as evidence, the same as in the case of interment, and when such parts or contents are removed the body may be cremated.
(b) Removal of Remains. It shall be unlawful, without a permit, to remove from said City and County, for the purpose of cremation, the remains of any human being, who died within its limits; nor shall any such remains be removed and cremated without a permit from said Director of Public Health to so remove and cremate, as provided for in this Section, and any person who, as undertaker, or agent, or otherwise, obtains a permit to remove a body from said City and County for the purpose of interment, who cremates said body or is privy thereto, is guilty of a misdemeanor. When death resulted from a contagious disease a special permit to remove and cremate may be issued by the Department of Public Health.
Provided, that in case of death from any cause whatever, a special permit may be issued by the Department of Public Health, to remove and cremate a body at any time.
(c) Death from Contagious Disease. When death results from contagious disease (within the meaning of the words "contagious disease"), as defined by said Department of Public Health or by law, the body shall not be publicly exposed, and said remains shall be cremated without being taken from the case enclosing them, and said Department of Public Health may adopt regulations prescribing the manner and shape in which the remains referred to in this Section shall be prepared for cremation.