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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Ind. Law - "Bill allows Indiana to ship cadavers"

An AP story on the Indianapolis Star website reports:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — College officials faced with an excess of donated bodies for medical research and education hope state lawmakers approve a bill that would permit them to ship cadavers out of state to other research centers.

Under current state law, Indiana can receive donated bodies from other states, but the state’s colleges cannot ship donated cadavers out of state. * * *

Indiana had been averaging about 150 donated bodies annually, but in recent years that number has gone up to about 225 a year, Burr said. More people tend to donate their bodies to science when the economy is bad because there are no funeral expenses involved, he said.

Bill sponsor Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, said there is broad support for the cadaver proposal, but other aspects of the bill may be a problem. Lawmakers from the House and Senate are trying to reach a compromise on the proposal before the legislative session ends April 29.

What bill is this? The ILB naturally wondered, as the story does not identify the bill.

It is Senate Bill 218. Here is the digest:

Health provider issues. Requires a health care provider or clinical laboratory that sends a patient sample for anatomic pathology services to a referral laboratory to disclose to the patient if the health care provider or clinical laboratory has a financial interest in the referral laboratory. Specifies requirements for claim payments to out of network health care providers. Provides that an "eligible institution", for purposes of the anatomical education program, must be an educational institution located in the United States. (Current law requires the institution be located in Indiana.)
It has passed both houses and the Senate now has the option to concur or send the bill to conference committee, as the bill was amended in the House. One of the House amendments (made in committee) added SECTION 2, the "cadaver" shipping language.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 19, 2009 09:16 AM
Posted to Indiana Law