PRINTER'S NO. 77
No. 70 Session of 1989
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, KOSINSKI, JAMES, ROBINSON, CARN, KAISER,
TRELLO, DALEY, THOMAS, HERMAN, E. Z. TAYLOR AND EVANS,
JANUARY 23, 1989
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON YOUTH AND AGING, JANUARY 23, 1989
AN ACT
1 Providing for the identification of newborn children by
2 footprints and blood tests; and providing for duties of
3 hospitals, county departments and boards of health and the
4 Department of Health.
5 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
6 hereby enacts as follows:
7 Section 1. Identification of infants at birth.
8 (a) Requirement.--All hospitals in this Commonwealth in
9 which newborn children are delivered shall establish procedures
10 whereby, promptly after the delivery of a newborn child, the
11 footprints and a blood test for determining type of blood shall
12 be taken for the purpose of positive identification of the
13 child.
14 (b) Records.--The footprints and the results of the blood
15 test shall be in duplicate sets, one of which shall be retained
16 in the records of the hospital and one of which shall be
17 transmitted to and retained in the records of the county
18 department or board of health.
1 (c) Supervision.--The procedure so established shall be
2 subject to the supervision and guidance of the Department of
3 Health.
4 Section 2. Duties of Department of Health.
5 The Department of Health shall have the power, and its duty
6 shall be, to establish procedures to be followed by county
7 departments or boards of health, under which the county
8 departments or boards of health shall be responsible for the
9 taking of footprints and blood tests of newborn children who are
10 not delivered in hospitals, and for the retention of records so
11 obtained.
12 Section 3. Effective date.
13 This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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