1-1     By:  Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Barrientos)           H.B. No. 2078

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1997;

 1-3     May 9, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on Health

 1-4     and Human Services; May 18, 1997, reported favorably by the

 1-5     following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the disposition of a person's remains.

 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 711.002(g), Health and Safety Code, is

1-11     amended to read as follows:            

1-12           (g)  A person may provide written directions for the

1-13     disposition, including cremation, of the person's remains in a

1-14     will, a prepaid funeral contract, or a written instrument signed

1-15     and acknowledged by such person.   The directions may be modified

1-16     or revoked only by a subsequent writing signed and acknowledged by

1-17     such person. The person otherwise entitled to control the

1-18     disposition of a decedent's remains under this section shall

1-19     faithfully carry out the directions of the decedent to the extent

1-20     that the decedent's estate or the person controlling the

1-21     disposition are financially able to do so.

1-22           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-25     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-26     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-27     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-28     passage, and it is so enacted.

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