NY Pub Health L § 4210 (2021)
2021 New York Laws PBH - Public Health Article 42 - Cadavers Title 2 - Autopsy and Dissection 4210 - Deceased Persons; Right to Dissect.

§  4210.  Deceased persons; right to dissect. The right to dissect the   body of a deceased person exists in the following cases:1. In the cases prescribed by special statutes; or,2. When the dissection is performed by or at the direction  of  (a)  a   coroner  who is a physician licensed to practice medicine in this state,   or (b) a coroner's physician, or (c) a medical examiner of a county,  or   is  performed  at  the  direction  jointly  of  a  coroner and coroner's   physician, and is performed in the course of an investigation within the   jurisdiction of the officer performing or directing the  dissection,  or   is  performed  upon  the  written  request  of  a  district attorney, or   sheriff, or the chief of a police department of a city or county, or the   superintendent of state police.The commissioner shall adopt regulations to establish standard autopsy   protocols for any person under the  age  of  one  year  who  dies  under   circumstances  in  which  death is not anticipated by medical history or   the cause is unknown.  Such  regulations  and  autopsy  protocols  shall   include  but  not  be limited to (i) requirements for the performance of   such autopsies, subject to  the  limitations  provided  for  in  section   forty-two hundred ten-c of this title, and (ii) delineation of specific,   standardized  methods for such autopsies. In developing and implementing   such regulations and protocols,  the  commissioner  shall  consult  with   health  professionals,  families  and other persons participating in the   implementation of the sudden infant death  syndrome  program  authorized   pursuant  to  section  twenty-five  hundred-b  of  this chapter and at a   minimum shall consult with an epidemiologist, a forensic pathologist,  a   pediatric  pathologist,  a  medical  examiner,  a  county  coroner and a   pediatrician with expertise in sudden infant death syndrome; or,2-a. Where a person dies while under care or treatment  at  a  general   hospital  (as defined by subdivision ten of section twenty-eight hundred   one of this chapter) or while recovering from such  care  or  treatment,   any  autopsy  report  for  such  person  shall be made available, by the   coroner or medical examiner under whose  jurisdiction  the  autopsy  was   performed,  in  a  timely  manner,  to  the hospital, for the purpose of   ongoing performance improvement of  such  hospital,  including  for  the   purposes  of  sections  twenty-eight  hundred  five-j  and  twenty-eight   hundred five-k of this chapter. All such reports in the possession of  a   hospital  shall  be  subject  to  the provisions of section twenty-eight   hundred five-m of this chapter.3. Whenever and so far as the husband, wife or  next  of  kin  of  the   deceased,  being  charged  by  law  with  the  duty  of  burial, (a) may   authorize dissection for the sole purpose of ascertaining the  cause  of   death,  or (b) may authorize dissection for any other purpose by written   instrument which shall specify the purpose and extent of the  dissection   so  authorized,  and when a dissection is so authorized pursuant to this   subdivision the person authorizing the dissection also may  designate  a   physician  licensed  in any state or country to observe such dissection.   If the deceased has upon his person an  identification  card  indicating   his  opposition  to  the  dissection  or  autopsy  of  his  body no such   dissection or autopsy shall be performed except as required by law; or,4. Whenever any district attorney in this state, in the  discharge  of   his  official  duties,  shall  deem  it  necessary,  he may exhume, take   possession of, and remove the body of a deceased person, or any  portion   thereof,   and  submit  the  same  to  a  proper  physical  or  chemical   examination, or analysis, to ascertain the cause of death, and the  same   shall  be  made on the order of any justice of the supreme court of this   state, or the county judge of the county in which such dead  body  shall   be,  which  order  shall  be  made  on  the  application of the district   attorney with or without notice to the relatives of the deceased  person    or to any person or corporation having the legal charge of such body, as   the  court may direct. Said district attorney shall have power to direct   any police officer or peace officer,  acting  pursuant  to  his  special   duties,  of  this  state, or to employ such person, or persons as he may   deem necessary to assist him in exhuming, removing, obtaining possession   of and examining physically or chemically such dead body or any  portion   thereof.  The  expense  therefor shall be a county charge, to be paid by   the county treasurer on the certificate of the district attorney.5. When an autopsy of the body is conducted of a  deceased  human  who   has  epilepsy or a history of seizures it shall include an investigation   and  determinations  as  to  whether  the  deceased  suffered  a  sudden   unexpected  death  in  epilepsy.  In the event the deceased did suffer a   sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy, such information shall be noted on   the death certificate and  be  reported  to  the  North  American  SUDEP   Registry.