Amendment #24 to H3944

Medical Examiner Priority

Mrs. Campbell of Methuen moves to amend the bill by adding the following 2 sections:

“SECTION XX. Section 4 of chapter 38 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “violence”, in line 5, the following words:- , acute or chronic use or misuse of a controlled substance or derivative thereof.

SECTION  XY. Said chapter 38, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after section 4A the following section:-

Section 4B.  If after making inquiry pursuant to section 4, the medical examiner is of the opinion that death may have resulted from acute or chronic use or misuse of a controlled substance or a derivative thereof, the medical examiner shall conduct an autopsy on the body of such deceased person within 1 month of the date of death.  Within 1 month after completion of such autopsy, the office of the chief medical examiner shall provide an autopsy report to anyone legally entitled to receive it.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the office of chief medical examiner from providing a copy of the autopsy report of a decedent to the decedent's surviving spouse, person in the first degree of consanguinity or, in the event there is no surviving spouse or person in the first degree of consanguinity, to the person entitled to receive the body.”