PRINTER'S NO. 999
No. 878 Session of 1989
INTRODUCED BY DAWIDA, MAY 2, 1989
REFERRED TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, MAY 2, 1989
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 29, 1953 (P.L.304, No.66), entitled "An
2 act providing for the administration of a statewide system of
3 vital statistics; prescribing the functions of the State
4 Department of Health, the State Advisory Health Board and
5 local registrars; imposing duties upon coroners,
6 prothonotaries, clerks of orphans' court, physicians,
7 midwives and other persons; requiring reports and
8 certificates for the registration of vital statistics;
9 regulating the disposition of dead bodies; limiting the
10 disclosure of records; prescribing the sufficiency of vital
11 statistics records as evidence; prescribing fees and
12 penalties; and revising and consolidating the laws relating
13 thereto," further providing for information on death and
14 fetal death certificates.
15 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
16 hereby enacts as follows:
17 Section 1. Section 502 of the act of June 29, 1953 (P.L.304,
18 No.66), known as the Vital Statistics Law of 1953, amended
19 November 21, 1967 (P.L.516, No.250), is amended to read:
20 Section 502. Death and Fetal Death Registration: Information
21 for Certificates.--In preparing a certificate of death or fetal
22 death, the person in charge of interment or of removal of a dead
23 body or fetal remains from the registration district shall
1 obtain the required information. The following persons shall
2 supply the information certified by their respective signatures:
3 (1) Personal information concerning the deceased or the
4 fetal death shall be supplied by the person best acquainted with
5 the facts.
6 (2) The medical certification, except in the event of a
7 referral to the coroner pursuant to section five hundred three
8 of this act, shall be supplied (i) in the case of a death, by
9 the physician or (ii) dentist who is a staff member of an
10 approved hospital who attended the deceased during the last
11 illness, provided the death occurs in the hospital and the
12 deceased had been admitted on the dental service, and (iii) in
13 the case of a fetal death, by the attending physician.
14 (3) The medical certification may include contributing
15 causes of death, including, but not limited to, the use of
16 tobacco.
17 Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
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