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Death occurring under circumstances making such death reportable to the Coroner shall be immediately so reported by any physician, funeral director, embalmer, ambulance attendant or other person having knowledge thereof.
No embalmer shall embalm a body when he has information reasonably indicating such death is reportable to the Coroner unless permission to embalm said body has been given by the Coroner.
When a person dies, having had medical attendance for less than 24 hours next prior to death, it shall be the duty of the physician in attendance, or any other person having knowledge thereof, to report such death to the Coroner.
Any death reported to the Coroner shall be subject to a preliminary inquiry, which shall be a matter of record and after which the Coroner, if the circumstances warrant, shall order a full investigation subject to the provisions of the Government Code; if such case does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Coroner, he shall so advise the person reporting said death or physician last in attendance, if any.
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.
It shall be unlawful for any person, association or corporation, to cremate, or cause to be cremated, the dead body of any human being within the City and County of San Francisco, exclusive of those portions of said City and County belonging to or under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States.
It shall be unlawful for any person, association or corporation, to bury, or inter, or cause to be interred or buried, the dead body of any person in any cemetery, graveyard, or other place within the City and County of San Francisco, exclusive of those portions thereof which belong to the United States or are within its exclusive jurisdiction, provided however, that in cathedral churches, as that term is generally used and understood today, the bodies of Bishops and Archbishops, acting or retired, and their spouses, if any, and cathedral clergy who, at the time of their death, were attached to the cathedral or held honorary titles therefrom, and their spouses, if any, may be buried or interred in areas designated for that purpose within the cathedral building; provided that said place of burial or interment constitutes a cemetery within the meaning of Section 7054 of the Health and Safety Code of the State of California.
(Amended by Ord. 168-66, App. 7/21/66)
Any person, association or corporation violating any of the provisions of Section 200 of this Article shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
[Embalming]
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