Dismembering a human body

720 ILCS 5/12-20.5 — under Criminal Code of 2012.

720 ILCS 5/12-20.5

(720 ILCS 5/12-20.5)

Sec. 12-20.5. Dismembering a human body.

(a) A person commits dismembering a human body when he or she knowingly dismembers, severs, separates, dissects, or mutilates any body part of a deceased's body.

(b) This Section does not apply to:

(1) an anatomical gift made in accordance with the Illinois Anatomical Gift Act;

(2) (blank);

(3) the purchase or sale of drugs, reagents, or other substances made from human body parts, for the use in medical or scientific research, treatment, or diagnosis;

(4) persons employed by a county medical examiner's office or coroner's office acting within the scope of their employment while performing an autopsy;

(5) the acts of a licensed funeral director or embalmer while performing acts authorized by the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Licensing Code;

(6) the acts of emergency medical personnel or physicians performed in good faith and according to the usual and customary standards of medical practice in an attempt to resuscitate a life; or

(7) physicians licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches or holding a visiting professor, physician, or resident permit under the Medical Practice Act of 1987, performing acts in accordance with usual and customary standards of medical practice, or a currently enrolled student in an accredited medical school in furtherance of his or her education at the accredited medical school. (c) It is not a defense to a violation of this Section that the decedent died due to natural, accidental, or suicidal causes.

(d) Sentence. Dismembering a human body is a Class X felony.

(Source: P.A. 95-331, eff. 8-21-07; 96-1551, eff. 7-1-11.)