Who Decides About Your Body
Health & Saf. Code 7100 — the order of who controls disposition when the decedent left no directions
In California the right to control disposition, the place and conditions of interment, and the funeral arrangements vests in a statutory order, unless the decedent gave other directions under the companion section.
- An agent under a power of attorney for health care who has the right and duty of disposition.
- The competent surviving spouse.
- The sole surviving competent adult child, or a majority of the surviving competent adult children.
- The surviving competent parent or parents.
- The sole surviving competent adult sibling, or a majority of them.
- The surviving competent adults in the next degrees of kinship, or a majority of those of the same degree.
A majority, and how fewer can act. Where a class has more than one member, fewer than a majority may act if they have used reasonable efforts to notify all the others of their instructions and are not aware of opposition from the majority.
The duty and the cost. With the right comes the duty of disposition and liability for its reasonable cost, except that a health care agent is liable only where they agreed to pay or made decisions that incurred costs the estate cannot cover.
Anatomical gifts, the medical examiner's authority, the funeral home's own forms, and who pays for disposition when no one with the right will act are outside this page. A dispute between family members of equal rank is a question for a licensed California attorney, and in some states for a court.
Sources for this section (1)
- Health & Saf. Code 7100 — Right to control disposition of remains; order of priority
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed California attorney.