Sub.
S.B. 175
127th General Assembly
(H. Health)
Includes in the information a hospital or physician must provide to a woman who presents herself as a result of a fetal death of less than 20 weeks of gestation a written statement, not longer than one page, that confirms that the woman suffered a miscarriage.
Specifies that the information on procedures for disposing of the product of a fetal death, is to be a short, general description.
Removes the provision of the "fetal death" definition regarding the "purposeful termination of a pregnancy" from the law governing fetal death certificates and instead specifies that the hospital or physician's notification requirements regarding miscarriage do not apply in the case of an abortion.
Allows either parent (not just the mother) to apply for a fetal death certificate for the product of human conception that suffers a fetal death prior to twenty weeks of gestation and requires the local registrar of vital statistics to issue a burial permit if either parent files a fetal death certificate.
Requires the parent to include with the application for the fetal death certificate the statement that confirms that the woman suffered a miscarriage; if the father applies, requires him to also submit a signed and notarized document from the mother attesting that she voluntarily provided the father with a copy of the hospital's or physician's statement confirming the miscarriage.
Provides that the fetal death certificate is not to list the cause of death for the product of human conception that suffers a fetal death prior to twenty weeks of gestation.
Specifies that when a township cemetery, municipal corporation, or cemetery company or association, on the request of a mother, inters the product of a fetal death, the cemetery must comply with its own rules or ordinances, as applicable.
Allows either parent to consent to the re-interment or disinterment of the product of a fetal death.
Requires a cemetery to give notice of the re-interment or disinterment if both surviving parents are listed on the burial documents and only one parent consents; allows that parent to object to the re-interment or disinterment.
Specifies that if there is timely objection from the parent who did not consent, the disinterment or re-interment is subject to current law governing disinterment or re-interment of human remains.
Specifies that if both surviving parents provide written consent, or if one parent consents and timely notice of the other's objection is not received, the cemetery must disinter or re-inter the product of a fetal death.
Authorizes the State Medical Board to inspect prescriptions, orders, records and stocks of dangerous drugs for the purpose of enforcing the law governing physician assistants.
S0175-127.doc/ss 05/23/08