STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3763

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1894

H.D. 3

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1894, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN REMAINS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to accommodate the use of both traditional Native Hawaiian burial practices and environmentally-friendly burial practices by including water cremation in the treatment and disposal of human remains.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement; Fischer & Associates, LLC; Ken Ordenstein Funerals; and fourteen individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that, traditionally, Native Hawaiian burial practices were undertaken by the steaming of the deceased's body in an imu until the flesh could be easily removed from the bones, which were then wrapped and returned to the family of the deceased. For over a century, Native Hawaiians have had no culturally appropriate way to bury their loved ones other than a full body burial in a casket in a plot of earth or by flame cremation with ashes and bone fragments. Water cremation is a water-based dissolution process for human remains that uses alkaline chemicals, heat, agitation, and pressure to gently accelerate natural decomposition. The liquid is considered a sterile wastewater, with no remaining DNA and is discharged with the permission of the local wastewater treatment authority, in accordance with federal, state, and local laws. There are also significant environmental benefits in comparison to traditional flame cremation. This measure, therefore, provides Native Hawaiians and consumers in Hawai‘i with an option for burial that is culturally appropriate, clean, and environmentally responsible.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1894, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1894, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair