Prohibits, in a city of 1,000,000 or more, delivery of an unclaimed body to a university, college, school or institute, unless the consent of the deceased or the person authorized to control the disposition of such body has been granted.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6372D
SPONSOR: Simanowitz TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the public health law, in relation to
limiting the release of a body to a university, college, school or
institute in a city having a population of one million or more
PURPOSE:
To prohibit the release and delivery of an unclaimed body to a universi-
ty, college, school, or institute for embalming, dissection, or autopsy
until the written consent of the deceased person's next of kin is
acquired
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill adds new subdivisions 3-a, 3-b, 3-c, 3-d, and 3-e
to section 4211 of the public health law to prohibit the delivery and
release of a body to a university, college, school, institute or mortu-
ary school for the purpose of embalming, dissection or autopsy unless
the decedent, spouse of the decedent, or next of kin of such decedent,
as defined by section 4201 of public health law, consents in writing.
The bill also provides for persons authorized to make anatomical gifts
to be covered under this section. It further provides that if the spouse
or next of kin are not located, it shall be presumed that the deceased
person and their family and next of kin object to embalming, dissection
or autopsy, and the body shall be released for burial.
Section 2 is the enacting clause.
JUSTIFICATION:
Under existing law, the director or person in charge of any hospital,
institution, morgue or other place for bodies of deceased persons not
interred or otherwise finally disposed of must deliver an unclaimed body
in their possession, charge, custody or control to an accredited medical
college, school or institute, university and mortuary school, etc., for
dissection, autopsy or study. The unclaimed bodies can be turned over as
soon as 48 hours after death. However, there are many instances where a
body is unclaimed because the spouse or next of kin is not aware of the
death of their loved one and such spouse or next of kin is not located
or notified. To make matters worse, there are additional instances where
the spouse or next of kin, if notified, would have objected for reli-
gious reasons to the embalming or dissection and would have taken the
body for burial according to their religious customs. To avoid this
tragic situation from happening in the future, this bill would require
the written consent of a spouse or next of kin before an unclaimed body
can be released to a university, college, school, institute or mortuary
school for the purpose of embalming, dissection or autopsy. Absent this
consent, the unclaimed body would be re leased for burial. This bill
would only apply to the City of New York.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect thirty days after it shall become law and
shall apply to the release and delivery of bodies on and after such date
