Bill Text: GA SB38 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Health; authorize Board for the Distribution of Cadavers to provide use of dead bodies in training/handling of police canine

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2009-07-01 - Effective Date [SB38 Detail]

Download: Georgia-2009-SB38-Introduced.html

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09 LC 35 1129

Senate Bill 38

By: Senator Harp of the 29th

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT

To amend Article 2 of Chapter 21 of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the disposition of unclaimed dead bodies, so as to authorize the Board for the Distribution of Cadavers to provide for dead bodies to be used in the training and handling of police canine; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.

Article 2 of Chapter 21 of Title 31 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the disposition of unclaimed dead bodies, is amended in Code Section 31-21-21, relating to the delivery of certain unclaimed bodies to the Board for the Distribution of Cadavers, as follows:

"31-21-21.

(a) All public officers of this state and their assistants and all officers and their deputies of every county, city, town, or other municipality and of every prison, county correctional institution, morgue, public hospital, health care facility, except the Central State Hospital which institution shall have authority to perform autopsies on the dead bodies of persons dying as patients therein in the discretion of the superintendent and medical staff of the institution, having control over any dead human body not dead from contagious or infectious disease and required to be buried at public expense are required to notify the board created under Code Section 31-21-20 or such person as may from time to time be designated in writing by such board for distribution or its duly authorized officer whenever any such body comes into their possession or control. Such officers shall, without fee or reward, deliver the body and allow such board and its duly authorized agents who may comply with this chapter to remove such body and to provide for its use only within this state, solely for the advancement of medical science and law enforcement training. No such notice shall be given nor shall any such body be delivered if any person, claiming to be and satisfying the authorities in charge of the body that he or she is of any degree of kin, or is related by marriage to, or socially or otherwise connected with and interested in the deceased, shall claim the body for burial, cremation, or other proper disposition; but it shall be at once surrendered to such person or shall be buried at public expense at the request of such claimant if a relative by blood or a connection by marriage and financially unable to provide burial, cremation, or other proper disposition.

(b) A body described in subsection (a) of this Code section shall in each and every instance be held and kept by the person or persons having charge or control of it for at least 24 hours after death, before delivery to such board or its agent for distribution, during which period notice of the death of such person shall be posted at the courthouse door of the county in which such body is held."

SECTION 2.

Said Article is further amended in Code Section 31-21-23, relating to the distribution of the Board for the Distribution of Cadavers, as follows:

"31-21-23.

The board for distribution or its duly authorized agent may distribute bodies received pursuant to Code Section 31-21-21 to and among the schools or colleges described in Code Section 31-21-20 for lectures and demonstrations by such schools or colleges and to schools certified by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council as provided in Chapter 8 of Title 35 for purposes of instruction in the training and handling of police canine. The number assigned to each medical institution shall be based upon the number of bona fide students in each dissecting or operative surgery class, which number of students shall be reported by the schools or colleges to the above-specified board at such times as it may direct, provided that the. The schools or colleges, upon receiving such bodies and before any use is made of them, and without unnecessary mutilation or dissecting, shall cause them to be embalmed properly and preserved carefully and kept for a period of 60 days from the day of receipt and shall deliver them properly prepared for burial, cremation, or other proper disposition to any persons mentioned and described in Code Section 31-21-21, who shall claim such bodies before the expiration of the period of 60 days and who shall satisfy the officers of the school or college that they are such persons as are entitled under Code Section 31-21-21 to claim such bodies. If, at the expiration of 60 days, such body or bodies have not been claimed for burial in the manner and by the person or persons described in this article, they shall then be used by the schools or colleges for the purposes specified in this article. When the bodies have been so used and are no longer needed or serviceable for the purposes mentioned in this article, they shall be decently interred by the schools or colleges."

SECTION 3.

Said Article is further amended in Code Section 31-21-25, relating to bonds by schools or colleges permitted to receive dead bodies by the Board for the Distribution of Cadavers, as follows:

"31-21-25.

No school or college shall be allowed or permitted to receive any body or bodies described in Code Section 31-21-21 until a bond shall have been given to the Department of Human Resources by or in behalf of the school or college by its authorized officers, to be approved by the clerk of the superior court of the county in which the school or college is situated and to be filed in the office of such clerk. The bond shall be in the sum of $5,000.00 and shall be conditioned that the body or bodies received thereafter by the school or college shall be used only in the manner specified in this article and solely for the promotion of medical science or law enforcement training in this state. Actions thereon shall be in the name of the Department of Human Resources, and any sums recovered shall be deposited in the state treasury."

SECTION 4.

All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.