If members of the Lagos State House of Assembly eventually pass the Cremation Bill 2012 into law, then cremation of corpses, especially unclaimed ones will commence in the state.
The bill is titled “A Bill for a Law to Provide for Voluntary Cremation of Corpses and Unclaimed Corpses within Lagos State”, enacted by the state House of Assembly.
The lawmakers, in their submissions said that inability of relations to claim corpses of their relatives contributed immensely to the bad situation of the mortuaries in the state. It also uncovered that heaps of corpses at the state mortuaries can also lead to an epidemic situation in the state.
The purpose of the bill will be to establish a crematorium that will take care of unclaimed corpses and for voluntary cremation of corpses within the state to solve the problem associated with getting land for mass burial, and to decongest the state mortuaries, battling with cases of unidentified and unclaimed corpses.
According to Section 6 of the bill which talks about getting permission to cremate, the following persons may apply for a permission to cremate, a child or children of the deceased; a close relative of the deceased; an undertaker and an agent/legal representative.
Section 8 of the bill which talks about Cremation of unclaimed bodies at the state hospitals, states that the Medical Director of the state hospitals shall order for the cremation of unclaimed bodies in their respective Mortuaries after six weeks of which such bodies are not claimed, which shall be with the consent and approval of the Commissioner for Health.
Under Section 10 of the bill, which talks about dealing with ashes, the cremator in charge of a crematorium must not dispose of the ashes remaining after a cremation except in accordance with any reasonable written instructions of the applicant.
“However, the cremator in charge may bury the ashes in a burial ground if, within one year after the cremation, the applicant does not give reasonable written instructions for the disposal of the ashes.
TUESDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2012
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