Minnesota Statutes 525A.22 – Cooperation Between Medical Examiner and Procurement Organization
(a) A medical examiner shall cooperate with procurement organizations to maximize the opportunity to recover anatomical gifts for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education.
Terms Used In Minnesota Statutes 525A.22
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- 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.
- Person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Minnesota Statutes 645.44
(b) If a medical examiner 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 medical examiner and a postmortem examination is going to be performed, unless the medical examiner denies recovery in accordance with section 525A.23, the medical examiner or designee shall conduct a postmortem examination of the body or the part in a manner and within a period compatible with its preservation for the purposes of the gift.
(c) A part may not be removed from the body of a decedent under the jurisdiction of a medical examiner 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 medical examiner may not be delivered to a person for research or education unless the body is the subject of an anatomical gift. This paragraph does not preclude a medical examiner from performing the medicolegal investigation upon the body or parts of a decedent under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner.