South Carolina Code 17-5-560. Certification of cause of death on death certificate
(B) The coroner or medical examiner must, at the time of releasing a body to a funeral director or person acting as a funeral director, or as soon as practical after releasing the body, execute and sign the medical certification of the cause of death on the prescribed form.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 17-5-560
- Autopsy: means the dissection of a dead body and the removal and examination of bone, tissue, organs, and foreign objects for the purpose of determining the cause of death and manner of death. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
- Cause of death: refers to the agent that has directly or indirectly resulted in a death. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
- Coroner: means the person elected or serving as the county coroner pursuant to Section 24 of Article V of the South Carolina Constitution, 1895, this chapter, and Chapter 7 of Title 17. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
- Deputy coroner: means a person appointed pursuant to § 17-5-70. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
- Deputy medical examiner: means a licensed physician employed by the medical examiner, with the approval of the commission, to perform post-mortem examinations, autopsies, and examinations of other forms of evidence as required by this chapter. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
- Medical examiner: means the licensed physician or pathologist designated by the county medical examiner's commission pursuant to Article 5 of this chapter for the purpose of performing post-mortem examinations, autopsies, and examinations of other forms of evidence required by this chapter. See South Carolina Code 17-5-5
(C) In any case where autopsy is scheduled and the coroner or medical examiner wishes to await its gross findings to confirm a tentative clinical finding, the coroner or medical examiner must give the funeral director notice as to when he expects to have the medical data necessary for the certification of cause of death. If the certificate cannot be signed within the prescribed time set forth, the coroner or medical examiner must indicate that the cause of death is pending and sign the certification accordingly. Immediately after the medical data necessary for determining the cause of death has been made known, the coroner or medical examiner must, over his signature, forward the cause of death to the registrar and notify the funeral director involved that this action has been taken.
(D) As used in this section, the terms "sign", " signed", or "signature" mean a written signature or an electronic signature authorized in the Electronic Commerce Act, Chapter 5 of Title 26.