H-1649 _______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 44
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State of Washington 49th Legislature 1985 Regular Session
By House Committee on Local Government (originally sponsored by Representatives Crane, Brough, Rayburn, May, Walk, Patrick, Hine, Bristow, Lundquist, Kremen, R. King, Schoon and Fisch)
Read first time 2/6/85 and passed to Committee on Rules.
AN ACT Relating to the release of autopsy and post mortem reports; and amending RCW 68.08.105.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1. Section 9, chapter 188, Laws of 1953 as amended by section 2, chapter 79, Laws of 1977 and RCW 68.08.105 are each amended to read as follows:
Reports and records of autopsies or post mortems shall be confidential, except to the family of the decedent, the attending physician, the prosecuting attorney or law enforcement agencies having jurisdiction, public health officials, or to the department of labor and industries in cases in which it has an interest under RCW 68.08.103: PROVIDED, That the law enforcement agency and prosecuting attorney having jurisdiction respectively shall have an opportunity to review said reports and records prior to release, and may require that they be withheld for a reasonable period of time if it is determined that the death occurred under suspicious circumstances and that their release may prejudice a subsequent investigation or prosecution.
The coroner, the medical examiner, or the attending physician shall, upon request, meet with the family of the decedent to discuss the findings of the autopsy or post mortem. For the purposes of this section, the term "family" means the surviving spouse, or any child, grandparent, grandchild, parent, brother, or sister of the decedent, or any person who was guardian of the decedent at the time of death.