2023 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.