Pols crusade for cadavers
ALBANY — Hold on to your dead.
Two state lawmakers from the city are looking to change a law that requires morgues and hospitals to hand over unclaimed bodies to educational institutions after as little as 48 hours.
“The issue is that basically unclaimed bodies are being released without any sort of consideration of the person’s possible religious or personal beliefs on whether or not they want to be used for such practices,” said Queens Assemblyman Michael Simanowitz, who sponsored the legislation with state Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn).
Simanowitz said the current law does not take into account religious sensitivities, including those of Orthodox Jews who believe that the body needs to be returned to the ground fully intact.
The legislation, which Simanowitz and Felder hope will be adopted before the end of the Legislature’s session in June, would require that hospitals and morgues obtain permission from the next of kin before they hand over a body for academic purposes.
If next of kin cannot be located, the presumption under the bill is that the family would oppose dissection and autopsy, and the body then is released for burial, not to an educational institution.
“What we are trying to do is create a little more clarity,” Simanowitz said. “If there is no clear consent, it should not be assumed they are OK with their bodies going to science.”
Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office, said it was reviewing the legislation. Gov. Cuomo
Simanowitz said the legislation was sparked by a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the city’s only mortuary school, The American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service, seeking to have the city resume its 50-year practice of turning over cadavers for its students to use. The school claimed the city violated state law when it halted the practice in 2014.
School officials did not respond to requests for comment on the proposed legislation. In court papers, the school’s attorney argued that without cadavers for its students to use the school could lose its accreditation.