Alabama § 45-49-171.65 - Issuance of Death Certificate.

§ 45-49-171.65. Issuance of Death Certificate.

If after investigating a death, the county medical examiner or his or her designated assistant, who shall be a physician licensed to practice medicine in Alabama, is satisfied that the death was not caused by criminal act or omission and that there are no suspicious circumstances about the death, then the county medical examiner, or his or her designated assistant, may execute a death certificate in the form required by law and authorize release of the body for final disposition on a certificate as prescribed by the State Health Department. If the deceased is unidentified, or if the county medical examiner suspects a death was caused by a criminal act or omission, or if the cause of death is obscure, he, she, or a qualified pathologist, licensed to practice medicine in Alabama and under his or her direction, shall further examine the body and take, retain, and examine or have examined whatever tissues, biological fluids, or other evidence from the body which he or she deems necessary to determine the cause, manner, or circumstances of death and the identity of the deceased. The county medical examiner or a qualified pathologist under his or her direction, shall then execute a death certificate in the form required by law and authorize release of the body for final disposition on a certificate as prescribed by the State Health Department.