A Fort Wayne death doula has secured a victory in a First Amendment lawsuit which challenged the state’s restrictions on discussing end-of-life care. 

Lauren Richwine is a death doula from Fort Wayne; as a community death care advocate, she helps families plan, delegate tasks, help navigate funeral options and receive emotional support. 

In January 2023, the Attorney General’s office reached out to Richwine, saying it had received a complaint that she was engaged in the unauthorized practice of funeral services.

 Indiana law defines those services as “counseling of survivors of a deceased individual on the services, methods, and alternatives for final disposition of human remains” and “arranging, supervising, or conducting a funeral service in conjunction with the memorialization or the disposition of human remains.” The definition of funeral services also includes holding, caring for or preparing human remains for a funeral or final disposition, which can include embalming.  

Those engaging in funeral services are required to get funeral director and funeral home licenses. 

Read more: Death doulas guide the terminally ill through process of 'dying well'

Ben Field, attorney for the Institute for Justice who worked with Richwine on the case, said since Indiana’s law is written so broadly, simply talking about death can fall within the state’s definition of funeral services. Field said getting those licenses would be time-consuming and impractical. 

“She would have to get a degree in mortuary science, she would have to have a year-long internship at a funeral home, embalming over 30 bodies. She'd have to buy a funeral home that she would literally never use,” he said. “So, there was just no way that she could run her sort of small business if she had to comply with this really onerous regulatory system.” 

A funeral director who has worked with Richwine wrote to the state saying she didn’t step outside the bounds of regulated services. So did other clients. But the state didn’t change its position. 

“I have no desire to do that. That is a totally separate line of work,” Richwine said. “It's one that death doulas and community death care advocates can be very complementary to. We can work together very well to provide a larger circle of care, but this work is very different.” 

In August 2023, Richwine filed a lawsuit against various members of the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service and Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, as well as Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita. She argued that the state’s demands that she stop her services and no longer talk about the end of life violated her First Amendment rights. She claimed she has a right to talk to families about death without having to get a license. 

“The reality is people do this all the time who aren't licensed to do so,” she said. “You've got hospice chaplains, you've got pastors, ministers, you've got people on staff at funeral homes themselves who sit down with families who come in for planning and things, and there's basically sales reps, they're not licensed funeral directors themselves, and they're talking about these things. So, it's not truly carried out because it would be impossible to enforce, but the fact that it is in the law in the code became the crux of the lawsuit.” 

Richwine was granted a preliminary injunction, which allowed her to continue her services while the lawsuit was pending. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that injunction, saying that the state’s enforcement of its funeral laws regulated speech. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana entered a consent decree, which makes the injunction permanent and allows Richwine to speak indefinitely.  

This case sets a precedent and applies to Illinois and Wisconsin as well, as those states are also in the seventh district. Going forward, Field said other people in a situation similar to Richwine’s where First Amendment rights are being challenged under the law could point to her case and argue for the same result. 

“This is a case that stands for a much larger principle, that when folks are just talking to each other and giving each other advice, everybody has a right to do that, and you shouldn't have to get some multimillion dollar or tens of thousands of dollar licenses to be able to have a conversation with other adults,” Field said. 

Indiana is one of nine states that requires families to hire a licensed funeral director; Richwine calls it a “forced relationship.” She said this has made the funeral industry much more costly and controlling of end-of-life care. She thinks winning this lawsuit is encouraging because it validates the work she does.  

She will potentially file another lawsuit to push the industry to change and promote more collaboration between funeral directors and death doulas and ultimately give families the full choice of whether they want to hire a funeral director. 

“I firmly believe that dying is an incredibly human experience, and it has become a heavily regulated, highly profitable industry, which to some degree is unfortunate,” she said. “There's a lot about the system, as with many of our systems, that is regrettable or not necessarily the healthiest for us as human beings, and so part of the reason the win is so important to me is that it does speak to the fact that there are inherent rights that belong to the next of kin to loved ones that the industry does not have the right to take away.”