N.Y. Public Health Law 4306 – Rights and duties at death
§ 4306. Rights and duties at death. 1. The donee may accept or reject the gift. If the donee accepts a gift of the entire body, the donee may, subject to the terms of the gift, authorize embalming and the use of the body in funeral services. If the gift is of a part of the body, the donee upon the death of the donor and prior to embalming, may cause the part to be removed without unnecessary mutilation. After removal of the part, custody of the remainder of the body vests in the surviving spouse, next of kin, or other persons under obligation to dispose of the body.
Terms Used In N.Y. Public Health Law 4306
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Donee: The recipient of a gift.
- Donee: means an individual or entity authorized to accept an anatomical gift pursuant to section forty-three hundred two of this article. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Donor: The person who makes a gift.
- Donor: means an individual whose body or part is the subject of an anatomical gift. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Eye bank: means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to engage in the recovery, screening, testing, processing, storage, or distribution of human eyes or portions of human eyes. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
- gift: means a donation of a whole body or part of a human body, to take effect after the donor's death, for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research or education. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Hospital: means a hospital licensed, accredited, or approved under the laws of any state and includes a hospital operated by the United States Government, a state, or a subdivision thereof, although not required to be licensed under state laws. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Organ procurement organization: means a person designated by the secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services as an organ procurement organization. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- part: includes "parts". See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- State: includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
- Tissue bank: means a person that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law to solicit, retrieve, perform donor selection and/or testing, preserve, transport, allocate, distribute, acquire, process, store or arrange for the storage of human tissues for transplantation, transfer, therapy, artificial insemination or implantation, including autogeneic procedures. See N.Y. Public Health Law 4300
2. When a donor is determined dead based on irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, the time of death shall be certified by a physician. Such physician may not participate in the procedure to remove or transplant the body part. In all other cases the time of death shall be certified by the physician who attends the donor at his death and one other physician, neither of whom shall participate in the procedure for removing or transplanting the part.
3. (a) (i) A person who acts in good faith in accord with the terms of this article or with the anatomical gift laws of another state, is not liable for damages in any civil action or subject to prosecution in any criminal proceeding for his or her act.
(ii) A person who acts in good faith in accord with the anatomical gift laws of another country is not liable for damages in any civil action or subject to prosecution in any criminal proceeding for his or her act provided that:
(A) such country has anatomical gift laws similar in requirements and effects to the anatomical gift laws of this state;
(B) such country appears on a list of such countries promulgated as a regulation by the department for such purpose; and
(C) such country appeared on such list at the time of such act.
(b) A person who documents the making, amending or revoking of an anatomical gift, acting reasonably and in good faith in accordance with this article, may accept an anatomical gift under this article made by a person who represents that the person is an authorized person under section forty-three hundred one of this article and is entitled to consent to the donation.
(c) An entity under section forty-three hundred two or forty-three hundred ten of this article or a health care professional, or an agent or employee thereof, who or which documents, records, recovers, procures, obtains, or utilizes an organ or tissue in reasonable and good faith reliance on information provided to or contained in the New York state donate life registry shall not be liable in any civil or criminal action or proceeding for action based on such reliance.
4. Any employee or agent of an organ procurement organization, eye bank or tissue bank acting pursuant to this article shall be held to the same standard of confidentiality as that imposed on employees of a hospital.