(a)  The medical examiner or his or her designee shall provide the federally designated organ procurement organization and other nonprofit federally registered eye and tissue banks, in a timely manner, all information necessary to facilitate organ and tissue donation including, but not limited to, names and available contact information of individuals whose deaths have been reported to the medical examiner’s office and jurisdiction accepted.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-23

  • Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor's death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Decedent: means a deceased individual whose body or part is or may be the source of an anatomical gift. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
  • Hospital: means a facility licensed as a hospital under the law of any state or a facility operated as a hospital by the United States, a state, or a subdivision of a state. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
  • 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.
  • Know: means to have actual knowledge. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • 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 Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Part: means an organ, an eye, or tissue of a human being. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Physician: means an individual authorized to practice medicine or osteopathy under the law of any state. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Procurement organization: means an eye bank, organ procurement organization, or tissue bank. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Refusal: means a record created under § 23-18. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Technician: means an individual determined to be qualified to remove or process parts by an appropriate organization that is licensed, accredited, or regulated under federal or state law. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2
  • Tissue: means a portion of the human body other than an organ or an eye. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-18.6.1-2

(b)  The medical examiner may release and permit the removal of a part from a body within that official’s custody, for transplantation or therapy, if:

(1)  The official has received a request for the part from a hospital, physician, surgeon, or procurement organization;

(2)  A donation has been authorized in accordance with § 23-18.6.1-5 or § 23-18.6.1-9;

(3)  The official does not know of a refusal or contrary indication by the decedent or objection by a person having authority to act as listed in § 23-18.6.1-9;

(4)  The removal will be by a physician, surgeon, or technician; but in the case of eyes, by one of them or by an enucleator;

(5)  The removal will not interfere with any autopsy, investigation, procedure, or other additional activity as deemed necessary by the medical examiner required to arrive at a reasonable cause and manner of death;

(6)  The removal will be in accordance with accepted medical standards; and

(7)  Cosmetic restoration will be done, if appropriate.

(c)  The medical examiner, or his or her designee, may permit the removal of the anatomical gift to occur at the medical examiner’s office.

(d)  A permanent record of the names of the decedent, the person making the request, the date and purpose of the request, the part requested, and the person to whom it was released should be made by the hospital/physician/technician (enucleator) and forwarded to the medical examiner for his or her records.

(e)  The medical examiner, or his or her designee, shall be present during the removal of the anatomical gift if in his or her judgment such attendance would, in the opinion of the medical examiner or his or her designee, facilitate a donation that would otherwise be denied.

(f)  The medical examiner, or his or her designee, may only deny removal of the anatomical gift after explaining in writing or verbally with subsequent written documentation to the federally designated organ procurement organization and other nonprofit federally registered eye and tissue banks, reasons for determining that those tissues or organs may be involved in the cause of death.

History of Section.
P.L. 2007, ch. 476, § 2.