Section 5A Anatomical gifts from donor whose death is under investigation; approval by medical examiner or district attorney; limitation on civil and criminal liability
Section 5A. (a) The chief medical examiner or his designee shall provide the federally designated organ procurement organization and other federally-registered nonprofit eye and tissue banks located in the commonwealth with information necessary to facilitate organ and tissue donation including, but not limited to, names and contact information of individuals whose deaths have been reported pursuant to chapter 38, and autopsy reports on donors whose deaths are under investigation. In case of a suspicious death where the district attorney is controlling the investigation pursuant to chapter 38, the chief medical examiner or his designee shall not provide an autopsy report unless he is informed by the district attorney that he may do so. A health care professional authorized to remove an anatomical gift from a donor whose death is under investigation shall remove the donated part from the donor’s body for the acceptance by a donee, after giving notice to the chief medical examiner or district attorney, or their respective designees, subject to this section. The chief medical examiner and the district attorney, or their respective designees, shall approve or deny removal of the anatomical gift within the time provided by law to ensure the preservation of the anatomical gift for transplantation. The chief medical examiner, or his designee, may permit the removal of the anatomical gift at the medical examiner’s office. The chief medical examiner or district attorney, or their respective designees, shall be present during the removal of the anatomical gift if in their judgment such attendance would, in the opinion of the chief medical examiner or district attorney, or their respective designees, facilitate a donation that would otherwise be denied. In that case, the chief medical examiner or district attorney, or their respective designees, may request a biopsy or deny removal of the anatomical gift and shall explain the reasons for determining that those tissues or organs may be involved in the cause of death.
(b) No medical examiner, physician, federally designated organ procurement organization, or federally registered nonprofit eye or tissue bank who acts or attempts to act in good faith in accordance with this section shall be liable for that act in a civil action or criminal proceeding.