Ohio Code 313.23 – View of autopsy by interested person
(A) As used in this section:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 313.23
- autopsy: means the external and internal examination of the body of a deceased person, including, but not limited to, gross visual inspection and dissection of the body and its internal organs, photographic or narrative documentation of findings, microscopic, radiological, toxicological, chemical, or other laboratory analyses performed in the discretion of the examining individual upon tissues, organs, blood, other bodily fluids, gases, or any other specimens and the retention for diagnostic and documentary purposes of tissues, organs, blood, other bodily fluids, gases, or any other specimens as the examining individual considers necessary to establish and defend against challenges to the cause and manner of death of the deceased person. See Ohio Code 313.123
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
(1) “Interested person” means an employee of the coroner’s office, a physician, dentist, nurse, professor at a medical school, medical student, medical resident, nursing student, an employee of a procurement organization, a member of a law enforcement agency, or any other person the coroner, in the coroner’s discretion, determines is appropriate.
(2) “Procurement organization” has the same meaning as in section 2108.01 of the Revised Code.
(B) The coroner may allow an interested person to view an autopsy of a decedent without the interested person receiving permission to view the decedent’s autopsy from the decedent’s next of kin.
(C) No person who is under eighteen years of age and who is not an interested person may view an autopsy.