New York Consolidated Laws, Public Health Law - PBH § 3440. Funeral directors;  duty to use prescribed tests of death

Before removing the body of a deceased person from the place of death or preparing it for burial by injection of fluid or otherwise, every funeral director, undertaker or embalmer shall apply such tests as are prescribed by the commissioner for determining whether life is extinct.  If the body is not to be embalmed the same tests shall be made before it is prepared for burial.