HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2394        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2040

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act further regulating the issuance of death certificate..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Section 9 of chapter 46 of the General Laws, as amended by section 1 of chapter 120 of the Acts of 2004, is hereby further amended by adding the following paragraph:-

   The employers of a registered professional nurse, nurse practitioner or any other person authorized under this section to declare a person dead shall within 16 hours of death deliver to the funeral director responsible for the funeral arrangements of the deceased, a properly completed certificate of death which shall contain the signature of the attending or certifying physician. Whoever fails to comply with the provisions of this paragraph shall be punished by a fine of $1,000 or may be subject to suspension of license to practice, issued under the provisions of chapter 112, for a record of not more than 30 day, or both.