Pennsylvania Act 1955-575 — AUTHORIZING AUTOPSIES

Act text

AUTHORIZING AUTOPSIES
              Act of May 24, (1956) 1955, P.L. 1702, No. 575          Cl. 35
                                  AN ACT

     Providing for authorization for autopsies or postmortem
        examinations of human bodies claimed for burial within
        thirty-six hours after death.

        The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
     hereby enacts as follows:

        Section 1.  An autopsy or postmortem examination may be
     performed upon the body of a deceased person by a physician
     licensed under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to
     engage in the practice of medicine and surgery in all of its
     branches within the scope of the act, approved the third day of
     June, one thousand nine hundred eleven (Pamphlet Laws 639), and
     its amendments, or in the practice of osteopathy or osteopathic
     surgery within the scope of the act, approved the nineteenth day
     of March, one thousand nine hundred nine (Pamphlet Laws 46), and
     its amendments, when the dead body is claimed within thirty-six
     hours after death for burial at the expense of the claimant and
     authorization for the postmortem examination has been obtained
     in any of the following manners:
        (1)  By written authorization signed by the deceased during
     lifetime and the written consent of his surviving spouse, if
     any, after death.
        (2)  By written authorization of any party whom the deceased
     during lifetime designed by written instrument to take charge of
     his body for burial and the written consent of decedent's
     surviving spouse, if any, after death.
        (3)  By written authorization of the decedent's surviving
     spouse.
        (4)  If the surviving spouse is incompetent, unavailable or
     does not claim the body for burial, or if there is no surviving
     spouse, by written authorization of the following in order of
     precedence if the claimant agrees to provide burial: (i) adult
     children, (ii) adult grandchildren, (iii) parents, (iv) brothers
     or sisters, (v) nephews or nieces, (vi) grandparents, (vii)
     uncles or aunts, (viii) cousins, (ix) stepchildren, (x)
     relatives or next of kin of previously deceased spouse.
        (5)  If none of the above persons are available to claim the
     body, by written authorization of any other relative or friend
     who assumes custody of the body for burial.
        Section 2.  Authorization may be given by telegram, or by
     telephone if the telegram or telephonic authorization is
     certified by two persons present when it was received. Any
     telegram or telephonic authorization purporting to have been
     sent by a person authorized to give consent shall be
     conclusively presumed to have been sent by such person. If two
     or more persons entitled to authorize postmortem examination
     assume responsibility for burial, the written authorization of
     one is sufficient.
        Section 3.  The provisions of this act do not apply to
     postmortem examinations performed under the authority of
     statutes pertaining to the coroner's office or the office of
     postmortem examinations. It shall be applicable in cases of the
     bodies of honorably discharged soldiers, sailors, marines or
     airmen of the United States or of the Militia of the State of
     Pennsylvania, or the bodies of women who have served the United
     States in military activities, if authorization for a postmortem
     examination is granted in accordance with this act. In such
     cases the bodies shall be buried in accordance with the
     provisions of existing Federal law. If no person is available
     who is entitled to authorize a postmortem examination on a
     veteran's body, the body shall not be subjected to postmortem
     study and shall be buried in accordance with the provisions of
     existing Federal law.
        Section 4.  A dead body remaining unclaimed for burial at the
     claimant's expense, thirty-six hours after death, falls under
     the jurisdiction of the Anatomical Board of the State of
     Pennsylvania in accord with an existing State law.