State Reviews Complaint Against Lancaster Mortuary : Burial: Mumaw Funeral Home refuses to accept the bodies of those who die as a result of AIDS.

The state’s chief regulator of funeral homes said Friday his agency is reviewing a complaint filed against a Lancaster mortuary that refuses to take the bodies of people who died of AIDS-related illnesses. He said the case ultimately could set a precedent for mortuaries around the state.

Neil Fippin, interim executive director of the state Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, said his agency has not yet made a decision on a complaint lodged recently against the Mumaw Funeral Home.

The home’s director, Jim Mumaw, has said he fears he could possibly be infected with AIDS if he prepared AIDS-infected bodies for burial. Mumaw also said Friday he was told by state officials that as the proprietor of a private business he has the right to refuse service to those who died of AIDS-related illnesses.

So far, state regulators have determined that there are no specific statutes aimed at funeral parlors that apply to AIDS-infected bodies. But they are still reviewing whether some civil rights laws or other general statutes may apply--and the law is so murky that it may take some time to come to a decision, said Fippin.

“No one here seems to know anything about it as an issue,” said Fippin, who has headed the agency for the last four months. “So I guess nobody has raised it before.”

Once a decision is made, “it is logical” that it will set some kind of precedent, at least as far as his agency is concerned, Fippin said. He added that the real precedent would have to be established by the courts.

The funeral home could lose its license if it is found to have discriminated, but a less stringent penalty, such as unprofessional conduct, would be more likely, Fippin said.

Dr. Susan E. Lawrence of Lancaster, whose husband died of AIDS-related illnesses in July, filed the complaint against the funeral home.

She never actually solicited the funeral home’s services for her husband, but filed the complaint after calling Mumaw months after her husband’s death and asking whether he did take the bodies of those who had had AIDS or the HIV virus. She had learned of his refusal when organizing a conference on “AIDS in the Workplace.”

Lawrence, founder of the Catalyst Foundation for AIDS Awareness and Care, was one of several activists who held a news conference Thursday to decry the funeral home and other Antelope Valley organizations they said were unfairly and illegally discriminating against those with AIDS. Lawrence, who treats people with the disease, said the group’s principal goal is to distribute information and attack irrational fears about the disease.

Mumaw said he does all he can to refer those seeking mortuary services for those who died of AIDS illnesses to other funeral homes in the area. But as a single father of two young children, he said, he is unwilling to take the chance--however small--that he might become infected with the virus.

“It wouldn’t be fair to leave them out on a limb and just say no. I try to help them,” Mumaw said. “If I was the only funeral home in town, it would be a much bigger issue. But there are others who handle such cases.”

Mumaw said he does not know of anyone who has contracted the virus from work in the funeral industry. “But I sure don’t want to be the first,” he said.