Why does the Coroner charge a fee for a cremation release?
The release for cremation is required for all persons whose bodies are to be cremated, buried at sea or otherwise disposed of so as to be thereafter unavailable for examination (usually those who are donating the body to science). The great majority of these deaths are certified by the attending physicians and would not otherwise fall under the jurisdiction of the Coroner. Each of these deaths must be reviewed and often contact must be made with the physician’s office or the medical records department of the facility where death occurred. This additional workload justifies a specific fee to be paid by the users of the specific service rather than by the taxpayers in general.
