PRINTER'S NO. 1966
No. 1378 Session of 2008
INTRODUCED BY WONDERLING, ROBBINS, GORDNER, ERICKSON, WAUGH,
PIPPY, BROWNE, BOSCOLA, ARMSTRONG, BAKER, ORIE, KITCHEN,
BRUBAKER, EARLL, RHOADES, A. WILLIAMS, C. WILLIAMS,
WASHINGTON, WOZNIAK, D. WHITE, VANCE, SCARNATI, M. WHITE,
MADIGAN AND FOLMER, APRIL 25, 2008
REFERRED TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE, APRIL 25, 2008
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 29, 1953 (P.L.304, No.66), entitled "An
2 act providing for the administration of a statewide system of
3 vital statistics; prescribing the functions of the State
4 Department of Health, the State Advisory Health Board and
5 local registrars; imposing duties upon coroners,
6 prothonotaries, clerks of orphans' court, physicians,
7 midwives and other persons; requiring reports and
8 certificates for the registration of vital statistics;
9 regulating the disposition of dead bodies; limiting the
10 disclosure of records; prescribing the sufficiency of vital
11 statistics records as evidence; prescribing fees and
12 penalties; and revising and consolidating the laws relating
13 thereto," further providing for general powers and duties of
14 Department of Health, for disclosure of records and for
15 evidentiary sufficiency of records; providing for access to
16 records on Internet website; and making an appropriation.
17 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
18 hereby enacts as follows:
19 Section 1. Sections 201, 801 and 810 of the act of June 29,
20 1953 (P.L.304, No.66), known as the Vital Statistics Law of
21 1953, are amended to read:
22 Section 201. Department: General Powers and Duties.--(a)
23 The department shall, pursuant to the provisions of the act,
1 approved the ninth day of April, one thousand nine hundred
2 twenty-nine (Pamphlet Laws 177), as amended, cited as "The
3 Administrative Code of 1929":
4 (1) Administer and enforce the provisions of this act and
5 the regulations made pursuant thereto.
6 (2) Install and maintain a statewide system of vital
7 statistics.
8 (3) Be the custodian of all vital statistics files and
9 records collected, created or compiled under the provisions of
10 this act.
11 (4) Have supervisory power over all local registrars
12 appointed under the provisions of this act.
13 (b) Within two years of the effective date of this
14 subsection, the department shall implement an Internet-based
15 electronic death registration system for the creation, storage
16 and transfer of death registration information. The electronic
17 death registration system shall protect the proper use of the
18 death registration information created, stored and transferred
19 within the system and shall be subject to any limitation placed
20 on the accessibility and release of personally identifying
21 information contained in a death record by any other provision
22 of law.
23 Section 801. Records: Disclosure in General.--The vital
24 statistics records of the department and of local registrars
25 shall not be open to public inspection except as authorized by
26 the provisions of this act and the regulations of the Advisory
27 Health Board. Neither the department nor local registrars shall
28 issue copies of or disclose any vital statistics record or part
29 thereof created under the provisions of this or prior acts
30 except in compliance with the provisions of this act and the
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1 regulations of the Advisory Health Board. When one hundred (100)
2 years have elapsed after the date of birth or fifty (50) years
3 have elapsed after the date of death, the records, including any
4 application filed in connection therewith, of these events shall
5 become public records, and information shall be made available
6 in written form and without fee or charge for access on an
7 Internet website established and maintained by the department in
8 accordance with regulations which shall provide for the
9 continued safekeeping of the records.
10 Section 810. Records: Evidentiary Sufficiency.--(a) Any
11 written record or duly certified copy of a record or part
12 thereof which is (1) filed with the department in accordance
13 with the provisions of this act and the regulations of the
14 Advisory Health Board and which (2) is not a "delayed" record
15 filed under section seven hundred two of this act or a record
16 "corrected" under section seven hundred three of this act shall
17 constitute prima facie evidence of its contents, except that in
18 any proceeding in which paternity is controverted and which
19 affects the interests of an alleged father or his successors in
20 interest no record or part thereof shall constitute prima facie
21 evidence of paternity unless the alleged father is the husband
22 of the mother of the child.
23 (b) Only records or duly certified copies of records
24 maintained or issued by the department and with the raised seal
25 of the department or bureau affixed thereto shall constitute
26 prima facie evidence.
27 Section 2. The act is amended by adding a section to read:
28 Section 811. Access to Records on Internet Website.--(a)
29 The department shall establish and maintain a searchable
30 database of all birth and death certificates records held and
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1 maintained by the department. The database shall be subject to
2 any limitation placed on the accessibility and release of
3 personally identifying information contained in a record by any
4 other provision of law.
5 (b) The department shall establish and maintain a searchable
6 index database of all death records for which more than two (2)
7 years have elapsed but fewer than fifty (50) years have elapsed.
8 The index database shall be open to public examination without
9 charge or fee on an Internet website. The information open to
10 public examination in the index shall be limited to the
11 decedents' names, dates of death, approximate ages at death and
12 places of death.
13 Section 3. An amount to be determined shall be appropriated
14 to the Department of Health for the implementation of this act.
15 Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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