Ohio Code 3705.22 – Birth certificate to be amended to correct errors
Whenever it is alleged that the facts stated in any birth, fetal death, or death record filed in the department of health are not true, the director may require satisfactory evidence to be presented in the form of affidavits, amended records, or certificates to establish the alleged facts. When established, the original record or certificate shall be supplemented by the affidavit or the amended certificate or record information.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3705.22
- Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
- Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
- Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
- Birth record: means a birth certificate that has been registered with the office of vital statistics; or, if registered prior to March 16, 1989, with the division of vital statistics; or, if registered prior to the establishment of the division of vital statistics, with the department of health or a local registrar. See Ohio Code 3705.01
- Child: includes child by adoption. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Fetal death: means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which after such expulsion or extraction does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles. See Ohio Code 3705.01
- Funeral director: has the meaning given in section 4717. See Ohio Code 3705.01
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Physician: means a person licensed pursuant to Chapter 4731. See Ohio Code 3705.01
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
An affidavit in a form prescribed by the director shall be sworn to by a person having personal knowledge of the matter sought to be corrected. Medical certifications contained on fetal death or death records may be corrected only by the person whose name appears on the original record as attending physician or by the coroner of the county in which the death occurred.
The amended birth record shall be signed by the person who attended the birth and the informant or informants whose names appear on the original record. The amended death or fetal death record shall be signed by the physician or coroner, funeral director, and informant whose names appear on the original record.
An affidavit or amended record for the correction of the given name of a person shall have the signature of the person, if the person is age eighteen or older, or of both parents if the person is under eighteen, except that in the case of a child born out of wedlock, the mother’s signature will suffice; in the case of the death or incapacity of either parent, the signature of the other parent will suffice; in the case of a child not in the custody of his parents, the signature of the guardian or agency having the custody of the child will suffice; and in the case of a child whose parents are deceased, the signature of another person who knows the child will suffice.
Once a correction or amendment of an item is made on a vital record, that item shall not be corrected or amended again except on the order of a court of this state or the request of a court of another state or jurisdiction.
The director may refuse to accept an affidavit or amended certificate or record that appears to be submitted for the purpose of falsifying the certificate or record.
A certified copy of a certificate or record issued by the department of health shall show the information as originally given and the corrected information, except that an electronically produced copy need indicate only that the certificate or record was corrected and the item that was corrected.