Missouri HB 1264: Creates provisions relating to certifying causes of death

Bill Text

FIRST REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 1264
101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE PERSON.
2441H.01I DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 58.720, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to
certifying causes of death.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 58.720, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu
2 thereof, to be known as section 58.720, to read as follows:
58.720. 1. When any person dies within a county having a medical examiner as a result
2 of:
3 (1) Violence by homicide, suicide, or accident;
4 (2) Thermal, chemical, electrical, or radiation injury;
5 (3) Criminal abortions, including those self-induced;
6 (4) Disease thought to be of a hazardous and contagious nature or which might constitute
7 a threat to public health; or when any person dies:
8 (a) Suddenly when in apparent good health;
9 (b) When unattended by a physician, chiropractor, or an accredited Christian Science
10 practitioner, during the period of thirty-six hours immediately preceding his or her death;
11 (c) While in the custody of the law, or while an inmate in a public institution;
12 (d) In any unusual or suspicious manner;
13
14 the police, sheriff, law enforcement officer or official, or any person having knowledge of such
15 a death shall immediately notify the office of the medical examiner of the known facts
16 concerning the time, place, manner and circumstances of the death. Immediately upon receipt
17 of notification, the medical examiner or his or her designated assistant shall take charge of the
EXPLANATION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is intended
to be omitted from the law. Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.

HB 1264 2
18 dead body and fully investigate the essential facts concerning the medical causes of death. He
19 or she may take the names and addresses of witnesses to the death and shall file this information
20 in his or her office. The medical examiner or his or her designated assistant shall take
21 possession of all property of value found on the body, making exact inventory thereof on his or
22 her report and shall direct the return of such property to the person entitled to its custody or
23 possession. The medical examiner or his or her designated assistant examiner shall take
24 possession of any object or article which, in his or her opinion, may be useful in establishing the
25 cause of death, and deliver it to the prosecuting attorney of the county.
26 2. When a death occurs outside a licensed health care facility, the first licensed medical
27 professional or law enforcement official learning of such death shall contact the county medical
28 examiner. Immediately upon receipt of such notification, the medical examiner or the medical
29 examiner's deputy shall make a determination if further investigation is necessary, based on
30 information provided by the individual contacting the medical examiner, and immediately advise
31 such individual of the medical examiner's intentions.
32 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 2 of this section to the contrary, when
33 a death occurs under the care of a hospice, no investigation shall be required if the death is
34 certified by the treating physician of the deceased or the medical director of the hospice as a
35 natural death due to disease or diagnosed illness. The hospice shall provide written notice to the
36 medical examiner within twenty-four hours of the death.
37 4. In case of sudden, violent or suspicious death after which the body was buried without
38 any investigation or autopsy, the medical examiner, upon being advised of such facts, may at his
39 or her own discretion request that the prosecuting attorney apply for a court order requiring the
40 body to be exhumed.
41 5. The medical examiner shall certify the cause of death in any case where death
42 occurred without medical attendance or where an attending physician refuses to sign a certificate
43 of death, and may sign a certificate of death in the case of any death.
44 6. When the cause of death is established by the medical examiner, he or she shall file
45 a copy of his or her findings in his or her office within thirty days after notification of the death.
46 The medical examiner shall not certify the cause of death as suicide in any case, including
47 a case in which the person who died was previously reported missing, unless substantial
48 evidence exists to prove suicide was the cause of death.
49 7. (1) When a person is being transferred from one county to another county for medical
50 treatment and such person dies while being transferred, or dies while being treated in the
51 emergency room of the receiving facility, the place which the person is determined to be dead
52 shall be considered the place of death and the county coroner or the medical examiner of the

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