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PROPOSED ORDINANCE AMENDMENT
AN AMENDMENT TO THE COOK COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER'S ORDINANCE
BE IT ORDAINED, by the Cook County Board of Commissioners, that Chapter 38 Health and Human Services, Division 1, Sec. 38-113 through Sec. 38-144 of the Cook County Code, is hereby amended as follows:
DIVISION 1. - GENERALLY
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Sec. 38-113. - Duties.
The Medical Examiner has and shall exercise the powers, duties, responsibilities, functions and authority provided by ordinance for those purposes and functions. Any abuse by the Medical Examiner of the authority contained in this ordinance [article] shall be deemed cause for removal.
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Sec. 38-132. - Identified body; public disposition.
Where the Medical Examiner has no legal reason for retaining a body and an authorized person cannot or will not assume responsibility for final disposition of the decedent within 30 days of the death of the decedent, the Medical Examiner shall have the authority to dispose of the body by public disposition. Notwithstanding the above, where the decedent's next of kin objects to public disposition by donation to science prior to transfer of the body, the Medical Examiner's Office shall have the authority to dispose of the body by cremation. Disposition of fetal remains may be by burial when available or by cremation.
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Sec. 38-136. - Permission to embalm.
In the interest of public health and hygiene and the preservation of the dignity of the deceased, anybody any body that is stored in the facility more than three days after death may be embalmed at the discretion of the Medical Examiner without the permission of the deceased person's next-of-kin.
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Sec. 38-139. - Permit required for cremation.
(a) Where the remains of any dead human body are to be cremated, thus becoming unavailable for later examination, it shall be the duty of the funeral director or person having custody of the dead human body to obtain from the Medical Examiner a Ppermit to...
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