Who Can Authorize Cremation in Texas?
From Everendium · Last reviewed October 15, 2026
This guide covers Texas. For the general overview, see Right of Disposition Explained.
Quick answer
Texas's law (Tex. Health & Safety Code § 711.002) decides who can authorize cremation. If the person left no valid written instructions, the right passes in this order: the person the decedent designated, the spouse, any adult child, either parent, any adult sibling, the executor or administrator, and then the next adult kin. Any one adult child or sibling may act, and disputes go to a court with probate jurisdiction.
Texas’s rules on who controls a body after death are in Tex. Health & Safety Code § 711.002. They go beyond the simple “spouse, then children” pattern many people assume, and some details can change the outcome for a family.
What if the person left written instructions?
The decedent can designate a person in a signed, acknowledged writing (the agent must sign before acting), and that person ranks first, ahead of the spouse and family.
Who decides if there are no written instructions?
If there are no valid written instructions, Tex. Health & Safety Code § 711.002 gives the right to decide in this order: the person the decedent designated, the spouse, any adult child, either parent, any adult sibling, the executor or administrator, and then the next adult kin.
What if relatives of equal rank disagree?
Any one adult child or sibling may act, and disputes go to a court with probate jurisdiction. A court with probate jurisdiction resolves authority disputes, even before a probate case is opened.
Can someone lose the right to decide?
If no arrangement or delegation is made by the earlier of day 6 after notice or day 10 after the death, the right passes. Specified death-related family-violence arrests or warrants, or a protective-order application or order, bar control.
What should the family do first?
Tell the funeral home or crematory about any signed documents (a will, a health-care directive, or a disposition form recognized in Texas) and about any relatives who rank equally. Ask which person it is treating as the authorizing agent and what in Tex. Health & Safety Code § 711.002 it is relying on. If relatives disagree, many states let a provider wait for a court order or a written agreement, so ask how yours handles it. See who pays for a funeral when siblings disagree and when ex-spouses or estranged relatives claim a say in the funeral, and what to do when someone dies in Texas.
Add this to your Final Day Plan: your own preference between burial and cremation, in writing, and the name of the person you want to direct it, in a signed writing that meets Texas’s requirements. Ask a funeral home or an attorney what those are.
State law changes, and funeral homes apply it to the facts of each case. This is general educational information, not legal advice; an attorney licensed in Texas can tell you what applies to your family.
Sources
About this review
Everendium Editorial Team · last reviewed October 15, 2026.
Order of priority, tie rules, deadlines, and disqualifications are paraphrased from a 50-state statutory survey in which each state was checked in early October 2026 (Ezel, a legal research service, so a secondary source) and compared with the Funeral Consumers Alliance's state-by-state compilation. Full statute text was not read for any state, and the survey reflects the law as of its check date. Recommended for review by an attorney licensed in Texas before wide promotion. Date-stamped October 15, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice
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