Who Decides About Your Body
N.J.S.A. 45:27-22 — appointed in a will or a witnessed, notarized form, then the order of kin
A New Jersey decedent may appoint a person to control the funeral and disposition, and the funeral may proceed before the will is probated.
How to appoint. The appointment may be made in a will, or in writing on a form approved by the board, signed in the presence of at least two witnesses and notarized. The most recently dated valid appointment supersedes earlier ones. Someone connected to the funeral home, cemetery or crematory serving the decedent may not be appointed unless a relative.
- The surviving spouse, civil union partner or domestic partner.
- A majority of the surviving adult children.
- The surviving parent or parents.
- A majority of the brothers and sisters.
- Other next of kin by degree of consanguinity.
Within 72 hours. Without an appointment, the highest priority class exercises the right within 72 hours after the death, or it can pass on. The right also passes over anyone the decedent held a restraining order against, or anyone charged with the decedent's intentional killing.
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 New Jersey attorney, and in some states for a court.
Sources for this section (1)
- N.J.S.A. 45:27-22 — Control of funeral, disposition of remains; priority classes
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed New Jersey attorney.