BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2457|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2457
Author: Bloom (D)
Amended: 5/16/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 4/21/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Autopsy: electronic image systems
SOURCE: Agudath Israel of California
DIGEST: This bill allows coroners to use an electronic imaging
system during an autopsy, unless there is a reasonable suspicion
to believe the death was caused by a criminal act.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires, in Government Code Section 27491, coroners to
determine the manner, circumstances and cause of death in the
following circumstances:
a) Violent, sudden or unusual deaths;
b) Unattended deaths;
c) When the deceased was not attended by a physician, or
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Page 2
registered nurse who is part of a hospice care
interdisciplinary team, in the 20 days before death;
d) When the death is related to known or suspected
self-induced or criminal abortion;
e) Known or suspected homicide, suicide or accidental
poisoning;
f) Deaths suspected as a result of an accident or injury
either old or recent;
g) Drowning, fire, hanging, gunshot, stabbing, cutting,
exposure, starvation, acute alcoholism, drug addiction,
strangulation, aspiration, or sudden infant death syndrome;
h) Deaths in whole or in part occasioned by criminal means;
i) Deaths associated with a known or alleged rape or crime
against nature;
j) Deaths in prison or while under sentence;
aa) Deaths known or suspected as due to contagious disease
and constituting a public hazard;
bb) Deaths from occupational diseases or occupational
hazards;
cc) Deaths of patients in state mental hospitals operated by
the State Department of State Hospitals;
dd) Deaths of patients in state hospitals serving the
developmentally disabled operated by the State Department
of Development Services;
ee) Deaths where a reasonable ground exists to suspect the
death was caused by the criminal act of another; and
ff) Deaths reported for inquiry by physicians and other
persons having knowledge of the death.
2)Requires the coroner or medical examiner to sign the
certificate of death when they perform a mandatory inquiry.
(Government Code § 27491(a).)
3)Allows the coroner or medical examiner discretion when
determining the extent of the inquiry required to determine
the manner, circumstances and cause of death. (Government
Code § 27491(b).)
4)Requires the coroner or medical examiner to conduct an autopsy
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at the request of the surviving spouse or other specified
persons when an autopsy has not already been performed.
(Government Code § 27520(a).)
5)Allows the coroner or medical examiner discretion to conduct
an autopsy at the request of the surviving spouse or other
specified persons when an autopsy has already been performed.
(Government Code § 27520(b).)
6)Specifies that the cost of autopsies requested by the
surviving spouse or other specified persons are borne by the
requestor. (Government Code § 27520(c).)
7)Requires, in Government Code Sections 27521(a) and (b), that
discretionary autopsies include the following:
a) All available finger and palm prints;
b) Dental examination;
c) Collection of tissue including hair sample and DNA
sample, if necessary;
d) Notation and photographs of significant marks, scars,
tattoos and personal effects;
e) Notation of observations pertinent to the time of death;
and
f) Documentation of the location of the remains.
8)Allows for the use of full body X-rays in conducting a
discretionary autopsy. (Government Code § 27521 (c).)
This bill:
1)Authorizes, except as specified, a coroner, medical examiner,
or other agency required to perform an autopsy in a death
under those prescribed conditions to use an electronic image
system, including, but not limited to, an X-ray computed
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tomography scanning system, to fulfill specified postmortem
examination or autopsy requirements.
2)States that a coroner cannot use an electronic imaging system
to conduct an autopsy in any investigation where the
circumstances surrounding the death afford a reasonable basis
to suspect that the death was caused by or related to the
criminal act of another and it is necessary to collect
evidence for presentation in a court of law. If the results of
an autopsy performed using electronic imaging provides the
basis to suspect that the death was caused by or related to
the criminal act of another, and it is necessary to collect
evidence for presentation in a court of law, then a dissection
autopsy shall be performed in order to determine the cause and
manner of death.
3)Allows an autopsy to be conducted using an X-ray computed
tomography scanning system without regard to the existence of
a properly-executed certificate of religious belief.
Background
Electronic imaging systems, such as computer tomography (CT),
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography
scanning have been used increasingly in recent years to assist
coroners and medical examiners performing autopsies. In certain
cases, these systems can help the coroner determine the cause of
death without performing a post-mortem dissection of the
deceased. This can be especially helpful in cases where the
deceased or the deceased's surviving spouse or next of kin have
religious objections to the post mortem dissections common in
traditional autopsies. This bill allows coroners and medical
examiners to use these electronic imaging systems during the
performance of an autopsy requested by a surviving spouse or
next of kin.
This bill also allows coroners, medical examiners and other
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agencies tasked with performing an autopsy to utilize electronic
imaging systems to assist in the performance of a mandatory
inquest. Existing law requires coroners and others to perform
an autopsy when there is reason to believe the death was caused
by a criminal act, either by another or by the deceased. This
bill does not allow electronic imaging systems to be the sole
method by which these mandatory autopsies are performed, but
allows them to be used during these autopsies. There are two
reasons for this: (1) electronic imaging systems as a method
for performing autopsies have not been ruled admissible as
evidence by any court of law; and (2) the current electronic
imaging system technology has been shown to be unreliable in
determining certain causes of death.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified6/15/16)
Agudath Israel of California (source)
California State Coroners' Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/15/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 79-0, 4/21/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth
Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto,
Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper,
Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim,
Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte,
O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Rodriguez, Salas,
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Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ridley-Thomas
Prepared by:Jessica Devencenzi / PUB. S. /
6/15/16 17:24:51
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