Title 32.1, Health

A. Upon the initiative of any local or regional law-enforcement agency, fire department, department of social services, emergency medical services agency, attorney for the Commonwealth's office, or community services board, local or regional child fatality teams may be establishe…

A. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shall develop a model protocol for the development and implementation of local family violence fatality review teams (teams) and such model protocol shall include relevant procedures for conducting reviews of fatal family violence incid…

A. Confidential records and information obtained from private and public entities and provided to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner during the course of a death investigation shall remain confidential and shall not be subject to the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of In…

A. There is hereby created the Adult Fatality Review Team, referred to in this section as "the Team," which shall develop and implement procedures to ensure that adult deaths occurring in the Commonwealth are analyzed in a systematic way. The Team shall review the death of any pe…

A. Upon the initiative of any local or regional law-enforcement agency, department of social services, emergency medical services agency, attorney for the Commonwealth's office, community services board, or official with the Adult Protective Services Unit established pursuant to …

A. Any county or city, or combination of counties, cities, or counties and cities, may establish a local or regional overdose fatality review team for the purpose of (i) conducting contemporaneous reviews of local overdose deaths, (ii) promoting cooperation and coordination among…

A. As used in this section, "maternal death" means the death of a woman who was pregnant at the time of death or within one year prior to the time of death, regardless of the outcome of the pregnancy, including any death determined to be a natural death, unnatural death, or viole…

A. Any county or city, or combination of counties, cities, or counties and cities, may establish a local or regional suicide fatality review team for the purpose of (i) conducting contemporaneous reviews of local deaths from suicide, including suicide deaths of military service m…

A. If, in the opinion of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, it is advisable and in the public interest that an autopsy be made as part of the investigation of the death, or if an autopsy is requested by the attorney for the Commonwealth or by a judge of the circuit court o…

An autopsy shall be performed in the case of any infant death which is suspected to be attributable to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). For the purposes of this section, "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome" (SIDS), a diagnosis of exclusion, means the sudden and unexpected death of …

A. In any case of death described in subsection A of § 32.1-283, where the body is buried without investigation by the Chief Medical Examiner, an Assistant Chief Medical Examiner, or a medical examiner appointed pursuant to § 32.1-282 into the cause and manner of death or where s…

This Act consists of §§ 32.1-291.1 through 32.1-291.25 and may be cited as the Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

A. A person authorized to make an anatomical gift under § 32.1-291.9 may make an anatomical gift by a document of gift signed by the person making the gift or by that person's oral communication that is electronically recorded or is contemporaneously reduced to a record and signe…

A. An anatomical gift may be made to the following persons named in the document of gift: 1. A hospital; accredited medical school, dental school, or institution of higher education; organ procurement organization; or other appropriate person authorized by the Virginia Transplant…

A. The following persons shall make a reasonable search of an individual who the person reasonably believes is dead or whose death is imminent for a document of gift or other information identifying the individual as a donor or as an individual who made a refusal: 1. A law-enforc…

A. A document of gift need not be delivered during the donor's lifetime to be effective. B. Upon or after an individual's death, a person in possession of a document of gift or a refusal to make an anatomical gift with respect to the individual shall allow examination and copying…

A. When a hospital refers an individual who is dead or whose death is imminent to a procurement organization, the organization shall make a reasonable search of the records of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and any donor registry that it knows exists for the geographic…

Each hospital in this state shall enter into agreements or affiliations with procurement organizations for coordination of procurement and use of anatomical gifts.

A. With the exception of hair, ova, blood, and other self-replicating body fluids, it shall be unlawful for any person to sell, to offer to sell, to buy, to offer to buy, or to procure through purchase any natural body part for any reason including, but not limited to, medical an…

A person that, in order to obtain a financial gain, intentionally falsifies, forges, conceals, defaces, or obliterates a document of gift, an amendment or revocation of a document of gift, or a refusal is guilty of a Class 4 felony.

A. A person that acts in accordance with this Act or with the applicable anatomical gift law of another state, or attempts in good faith to do so, is not liable for the act in a civil action, criminal prosecution, or administrative proceeding. B. Neither the person making an anat…

A. A document of gift is valid if executed in accordance with: 1. This Act; 2. The laws of the state or country where it was executed; or 3. The laws of the state or country where the person making the anatomical gift was domiciled, has a place of residence, or was a national at …

As used in this Act, unless the context requires otherwise: "Adult" means an individual who is at least 18 years of age. "Agent" means an individual: 1. Authorized to make health-care decisions on the principal's behalf by a power of attorney for health care; or 2. Expressly auth…

For the purposes of this Act, the donor registry is the Virginia Donor Registry established under § 32.1-292.2.

A. In this section: "Advance health-care directive" means an advance directive executed by a prospective donor as provided in the Health Care Decisions Act (§ 54.1-2981 et seq.). "Declaration" means a record signed by a prospective donor specifying the circumstances under which a…

A. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and procurement organizations shall cooperate with each other to maximize the opportunity to recover anatomical gifts for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. B. If the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner re…

A. Upon request of a procurement organization, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner shall release to the procurement organization the name, contact information, and available medical and social history of a decedent whose body is under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Ch…

In applying and construing this uniform act, consideration shall be given to the need to promote uniformity of the law with respect to its subject matter among states that enact it.

This Act modifies, limits, and supersedes the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7001 et seq., but does not modify, limit or supersede § 101(a) of that act, 15 U.S.C. § 7001, or authorize electronic delivery of any of the notices described in §…

This Act applies to an anatomical gift or amendment to, revocation of, or refusal to make an anatomical gift, whenever made.

Subject to § 32.1-291.8, an anatomical gift of a donor's body or part may be made during the life of the donor for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education in the manner provided in § 32.1-291.5 by: 1. The donor, if the donor is an adult or if the donor is …

A. A donor may make an anatomical gift: 1. By authorizing a statement or symbol indicating that the donor has made an anatomical gift to be imprinted on the donor's driver's license or identification card; 2. In a will; 3. During a terminal illness or injury of the donor, by any …

A. Subject to § 32.1-291.8, a donor or other person authorized to make an anatomical gift under § 32.1-291.4 may amend or revoke an anatomical gift by: 1. A record signed by: a. The donor; b. The other person; or c. Subject to subsection B, another individual acting at the direct…

A. An individual may refuse to make an anatomical gift of the individual's body or part by: 1. A record signed by: a. The individual; or b. Subject to subsection B, another individual acting at the direction of the individual if the individual is physically unable to sign; 2. The…

A. Except as otherwise provided in subsection G and subject to subsection F, in the absence of an express, contrary indication by the donor, a person other than the donor is barred from making, amending, or revoking an anatomical gift of a donor's body or part if the donor made a…

A. Subject to subsections B and C and unless barred by § 32.1-291.7 or 32.1-291.8, an anatomical gift of a decedent's body or part for purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education may be made by any member of the following classes of persons who is reasonably avail…

A. In order to save lives by reducing the shortage of organs and tissues for transplantation and to implement cost savings for patients and various state agencies by eliminating needless bureaucracy, there is hereby established the Virginia Donor Registry (hereinafter referred to…

The provisions of § 54.1-2972 shall be applicable for the purposes of this article.

No action for implied warranty shall lie for the procurement, processing, distribution or use of whole blood, plasma, blood products, blood derivatives and other human tissue such as corneas, bones, or organs for the purpose of injecting, transfusing or transplanting any of them …

A. The Virginia Transplant Council (hereinafter referred to as the Council) is hereby established to fulfill the following duties: 1. To create, compile, maintain, and modify as necessary the Virginia Donor Registry established in § 32.1-292.2 in accordance with the regulations o…

A. As used in this section: "Auxiliary aids or services" means an aid or service that is used to provide information to an individual with a cognitive, developmental, intellectual, neurological, or physical disability in a format or manner that allows the individual to better und…

Any person having charge or control of any dead human body that has been lawfully donated for scientific study shall notify the Commissioner whenever and as soon as any such body comes to his possession, charge, or control and shall, without fee or reward, permit the Commissioner…

A. The bodies received pursuant to § 32.1-298 shall be distributed by the Commissioner to institutions and individuals as they may be needed for the purposes of scientific education and training in health and related subjects as follows: 1. First, to the medical schools in Virgin…

The Commissioner shall keep a record of all bodies received and distributed, together with data pertaining to the disposition thereof.

After the bodies distributed pursuant to § 32.1-299 have been used for the purpose of instruction, they shall be decently interred or cremated by the institution or individual receiving them. However, if the decedent has stipulated in writing before his death that the cremated re…

The Commissioner may, in his discretion, on the application of any person, empower such person to import into this Commonwealth and traffic in such anatomical material and pathological specimens as the Commissioner may designate.