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The 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

AN ACT RELATIVE TO ACCESS TO AUTOPSY REPORTS.

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


The eighth paragraph of section 2 of chapter 38 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1998 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the first sentence the following sentence:- If a medical examiner conducts an autopsy on a body of a deceased person who within six months before the date of death received services from a facility or program operated, contracted for, or licensed by the department of mental health, the office of the chief medical examiner shall provide a copy of the autopsy report, upon request, to the commissioner of mental health for the purpose of completing an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death, if a next of kin does not object thereto.

Approved August 4, 2000.