North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 130A. Public Health § 130A-113. Permits for burial-transit, authorization for cremation and disinterment-reinterment

(a) The funeral director or person acting as such who first assumes custody of a dead body or fetus which is under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner shall obtain a burial-transit permit signed by the medical examiner prior to final disposition or removal from the State and within five days after death.

(b) A dead body shall not be cremated or buried at sea unless the provisions of G.S. 130A-388 are met.

(b1) For any death occurring outside North Carolina, a crematory licensee shall not cremate a dead human body without obtaining a copy of the burial-transit or disposal permit issued under the law of the state, province, or foreign government in which death or disinterment occurred before cremation. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to waive the provisions of G.S. 130A-388.

(c) A permit for disinterment-reinterment shall be required prior to disinterment of a dead body or fetus except as otherwise authorized by law or rule. The permit shall be issued by the local registrar to a funeral director, embalmer or other person acting as such upon proper application.

(d) No dead body or fetus shall be brought into this State unless accompanied by a burial-transit or disposal permit issued under the law of the state in which death or disinterment occurred. The permit shall be final authority for final disposition of the body or fetus in this State.

(e) The local registrar shall issue a burial-transit permit for the removal of a dead body or fetus from this State if the requirements of G.S. 130A-112 are met and that the death is not under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner.