(a) A county coroner shall cooperate with procurement organizations to maximize the opportunity to recover anatomical gifts for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education.
(b) If a county coroner receives notice from a procurement organization that an anatomical gift might be available or was made with respect to a decedent whose body is under the jurisdiction of the coroner and a post mortem examination or investigation is going to be performed, unless the coroner denies recovery in accordance with Section 7151.20, the coroner or designee shall conduct a post mortem examination or investigation of the body or the part in a manner and within a period compatible with its preservation for the purposes of the gift.
(c) A part shall not be removed from the body of a decedent under the jurisdiction of a coroner for transplantation, therapy, research, or education unless the part is the subject of an anatomical gift. The body of a decedent under the jurisdiction of the coroner shall not be delivered to a person for research or education unless the body is the subject of an anatomical gift. This subdivision does not preclude a coroner from performing the medicolegal investigation upon the body or parts of a decedent under the jurisdiction of the coroner.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law, when an anatomical gift might be available or has been made by a person whose death is imminent due to the lawful withdrawal of medical treatment and if that person’s body, post mortem, will be subject to the coroner’s jurisdiction pursuant to Section 27491 of the Government Code, a procurement organization may notify a coroner of the anatomical gift, and a coroner shall accept the notification, whenever that notification will facilitate the coroner’s ability to conduct a postmortem examination or investigation of the body or the part in a manner and within a period compatible with its preservation for the purposes of the gift.
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 341, Sec. 2. (AB 1297) Effective January 1, 2014.)