California Health and Safety Code 7151.15 – (a) A county coroner shall cooperate with procurement …
(a) A county coroner shall cooperate with procurement organizations to maximize the opportunity to recover anatomical gifts for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education.
(b) If a county coroner receives notice from a procurement organization that an anatomical gift might be available or was made with respect to a decedent whose body is under the jurisdiction of the coroner and a post mortem examination or investigation is going to be performed, unless the coroner denies recovery in accordance with Section 7151.20, the coroner or designee shall conduct a post mortem examination or investigation of the body or the part in a manner and within a period compatible with its preservation for the purposes of the gift.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 7151.15
- Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor's death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- County: includes city and county. See California Health and Safety Code 14
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Decedent: means a deceased individual whose body or part is or may be the source of an anatomical gift. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Part: means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
- Procurement organization: means an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank. See California Health and Safety Code 7150.10
(c) A part shall not be removed from the body of a decedent under the jurisdiction of a coroner for transplantation, therapy, research, or education unless the part is the subject of an anatomical gift. The body of a decedent under the jurisdiction of the coroner shall not be delivered to a person for research or education unless the body is the subject of an anatomical gift. This subdivision does not preclude a coroner from performing the medicolegal investigation upon the body or parts of a decedent under the jurisdiction of the coroner.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, when an anatomical gift might be available or has been made by a person whose death is imminent due to the lawful withdrawal of medical treatment and if that person’s body, post mortem, will be subject to the coroner’s jurisdiction pursuant to § 27491 of the Government Code, a procurement organization may notify a coroner of the anatomical gift, and a coroner shall accept the notification, whenever that notification will facilitate the coroner’s ability to conduct a postmortem examination or investigation of the body or the part in a manner and within a period compatible with its preservation for the purposes of the gift.
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 341, Sec. 2. (AB 1297) Effective January 1, 2014.)