Title 22

(a) Each funeral establishment taking possession of a dead human body shall maintain an identification system approved by the Alabama Board of Funeral Service. The identification system may include any dignified method, including, but not limited to, an arm band or a wrist band, …

The State Health Officer, the Dean of the School of Medicine and the head of the Department of Anatomy of the University of Alabama in Birmingham and the deans and heads of the departments of anatomy of other medical schools which may hereafter become incorporated under the laws …

The said board shall have full power to establish rules and regulations for its government and to appoint and remove its officers and shall keep full and complete minutes of its transactions. Records shall also be kept under its direction of all bodies received and distributed by…

All public officers of this state and their assistants and all officers and their deputies of every county, city, town or other municipality and of every prison, penitentiary, morgue and public hospital in this state having charge or control over any dead human body or bodies, no…

No notice shall be given, nor shall any such body or bodies be delivered, if any person shall satisfy the authorities in charge of said body or bodies that he or she is of any degree of kin or is related by marriage to, or socially or otherwise connected with and interested in, t…

Such body or bodies shall, in each and every instance, be held and kept by the person or persons having charge or control of it or them at least 24 hours after death before being delivered to said board, or its agent or agents, during which period notice of the death of such pers…

The said board, or its duly authorized agent, may take and receive such bodies so delivered as provided in this article and shall, upon receiving them, distribute them among schools, duly authorized by said board, for lectures and demonstrations by said schools, the number assign…

Said schools, upon receiving them, and before any use is made of them, and without unnecessary mutilation or dissection shall cause them to be properly embalmed and carefully preserved and kept for a period of 60 days from the day of their reception and shall deliver them properl…

When said bodies have been so used and are no longer needed or serviceable for objects mentioned in this article, they shall be decently interred, cremated or otherwise properly disposed of by the said schools. (Acts 1923, No. 360, p. 381; Code 1923, §1295; Code 1940, T. 22, §181…

The said board may employ a carrier or carriers for the conveyance of said bodies, which shall be enclosed in a suitable encasement and carefully deposited free from public observation. Said carrier or carriers shall obtain receipts by name or, if the person be unknown, by a desc…

Neither the state, nor any county or municipality nor any officer, agent or servant thereof shall be at any expense by reason of delivery or distribution of any such body or bodies, but all expenses thereof shall be paid by those receiving the body or bodies in such a manner as m…

Any person having duties enjoined upon him by the provisions of this article or other health laws of this state relating to the distribution of unclaimed dead bodies for scientific study who shall neglect, refuse or omit to perform the same as therein required must, on conviction…

(a) This article may be cited as the Alabama Uniform Anatomical Gift Act of 1969. (b) This article shall only apply to gifts made prior to January 1, 2004. (Acts 1969, Ex. Sess., No. 164, p. 230, §9; Act 2003-347, p. 887, §3.)

For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section: (1) BANK or STORAGE FACILITY. A facility licensed, accredited or approved under the laws of any state for the storage of human bodies, or parts thereof. (2…

(a) Any individual of sound mind and 18 years of age or older may give all, or any part of, his body for any purposes specified in Section 22-19-43, the gift to take effect upon death. (b) Any of the following persons, in order of priority stated, when persons in prior classes ar…

The following persons may become donees of gifts of bodies, or parts thereof, for the purposes stated: (1) Any hospital, surgeon or physician for medical or dental education, research, advancement or medical or dental science, therapy or transplantation; (2) Any accredited medica…

(a) A gift of all or part of the body under subsection (a) of Section 22-19-42 may be made by will. The gift becomes effective upon the death of the testator without waiting for probate. If the will is not probated, or if it is declared invalid for testamentary purposes, the gift…

If the gift is made by the donor to a specified donee, the will, card or other document, or an executed copy thereof, may be delivered to the donee to expedite the appropriate procedures immediately after death. Delivery is not necessary to the validity of the gift. The will, car…

(a) If the will, card or other document, or executed copy thereof, has been delivered to a specified donee, the donor may amend or revoke the gift by: (1) The execution and delivery to the donee of a signed statement; (2) An oral statement made in the presence of two persons and …

(a) The donee may accept or reject the gift. If the donee accepts a gift of the entire body, he may, subject to the terms of the gift, authorize embalming and the use of the body in funeral services. If the gift is of a part of the body, the donee, upon the death of the donor and…

(a) A gift of all or part of the body may be made by the holder of a valid Alabama Driver’s License or nondriver identification card by the execution of a sworn affidavit to be filed with the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency. (b) Notice of intent to make a gift shall be noted…

The officers and employees of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall be immune from any civil liability for any acts or omissions in carrying out the provisions of this division. (Acts 1976, No. 753, p. 1037, §2.)

No later than January 1, 1998, the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall redesign the driver’s license and nondriver identification card application system to process requests for information regarding consent of the individual to organ or tissue donation. The following ques…

A brochure provided by the federally certified Alabama Organ Procurement Organization that is a member of and abides by the rules and regulations of United Network for Organ Sharing explaining the method of expressing an intent to make an anatomical gift shall be given to each ap…

(a) This section shall be named Angelynn and Courtney’s Law. (b) The Legislature finds: (1) There is an acute need for organ donors in Alabama and throughout the nation. (2) According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 121,000 people are waiting for an organ trans…

The Director of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall designate a space on each driver’s license and nondriver identification card issued where the licensee may place a sticker or decal to indicate in appropriate language that the owner of the license or card desires to …

The Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency shall quarterly electronically transfer statistical and demographic information including, but not limited to, the name, most recent address, and date of birth, if available, of any person who has a current driver’s license or nondriver id…

Police and emergency personnel responding to the scene of an accident or trauma shall take reasonable steps to insure that the driver’s license or nondriver identification card, donor card, or other document of gift and medical alert bracelet, if any, of the individual involved i…

(a) Each duly elected or appointed coroner in the State of Alabama is authorized to withdraw and retain or direct the withdrawal and retention of blood and/or urine from the dead body of a person who died unattended by a physician, or who died under suspicious circumstances, or w…

Only a physician, registered nurse, duly licensed clinical laboratory technologist, clinical laboratory technician, mortician, licensed embalmer or licensed practicing embalmer may be directed by a coroner, deputy coroner, a law enforcement officer or the State Toxicologist or hi…

(a) No coroner, deputy coroner, the State Toxicologist and his designated or appointed assistants, mortician, licensed embalmer, physician, registered nurse, duly licensed clinical laboratory technologist or clinical laboratory technician or employers of the aforementioned person…

(a) Unless directed otherwise by the Governor, the Attorney General, a district attorney, or an order of a circuit court judge, a medical examiner performing his or her duties in any county in this state as provided under existing law, including a medical examiner employed by the…

The Alabama Eye Bank is authorized to train employees of the eye bank in principles and procedures of sterile eye tissue procurement pursuant to the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and according to the medical standards of the Eye Bank Association of America. (Acts 1980, No. 80-779, …

The Medical Director and the Executive Director of the Alabama Eye Bank shall certify that no employee shall be allowed to perform eye tissue procurement unless the employee possesses the necessary educational qualifications, standards of proficiency, and fitness. (Acts 1980, No.…

The Medical Director and the Executive Director of the Alabama Eye Bank are authorized to establish and promulgate the standards, measures, procedures, and recommendations necessary to assure the employee hereunder possesses the knowledge and technical skill to perform donor eye …

Any employee of the Alabama Eye Bank who is trained in donor eye tissue procurement under this article shall comply with the provisions of the Alabama Uniform Anatomical Gift Act. Such eye bank technician acting in accordance with the terms of this article shall not have any liab…

This article does not supersede, modify, or amend prior acts, specifically Sections 34-13-150 through 34-13-152. (Acts 1980, No. 80-779, p. 1614, §5.)

(a) The acquisition and transportation and transplantation of donor organs, bones and tissues is becoming more common place as new scientific and technological developments find better ways to conquer the human body’s rejection of such transplanted organs, bones and tissues. In i…

As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings, respectively, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: (1) CHAIRMAN. The Chairman of the Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. (2) PERSON. Any p…

(a) The Chairman of the Department of Surgery of the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is authorized to establish and promulgate the standards of proficiency and fitness and measures and procedures for quality assurance in the acquiring and/or transpor…

Any person providing any service pertaining to the acquisition and/or transportation of donor organs, bones and tissues retrieved in Alabama, shall strictly adhere to and follow the established quality assurance standards of proficiency and fitness and measures and procedures as …

Any person providing services in violation of the established policies and procedures and standards for quality assurance, as established and promulgated by the chairman, shall not receive reimbursement for such services. This provision applies to all reimbursement programs admin…

Any person who, in good faith, follows the policies and procedures and standards as established by the chairman for quality assurance, and complies with the provisions of the Alabama Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, shall not have any liability, either civil or criminal, for such acq…

(a) The provisions of this article are cumulative and insofar as possible, they shall be construed in pari materia with other laws relating to the public health and anatomical gifts. (b) At such time that standards of quality assurance for the acquisition and/or transporting and/…

(a) The Legislature of Alabama is acutely aware of the serious shortage of organs needed for transplantation. In its concern with this shortage of organs, the Legislature intends to establish in this article, a mechanism for the requesting of donor organs of any person who has di…

As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings, respectively, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: (1) ORGAN. Organs, tissues, eyes, bones, arteries, blood or other fluids and any other part or portions of a human body. (2) ATTENDING PHY…