Rhode Island § 23-4-1 - Office of State Medical Examiners

§ 23-4-1. Definitions.

(a) “Assistant medical examiner” means a duly licensed doctor of medicine or osteopathy appointed to assist the office of state medical examiners on a part-time basis.

(b) “Autopsy” means the dissection of a dead body and the removal and examination of bone, tissue, organs, and foreign objects for the purpose of determining the condition of the body and the cause and the manner of the death.

(c) “Cause of death” means the agent that has directly or indirectly resulted in a death.

(d) “Inquest” means an official judicial inquiry before a medical examiner and/or medical examiners jury for the purpose of determining the manner of death.

(e) “Manner of death” means the means or fatal agency that caused a death.

(f) “Postmortem examination” means examination after death and includes an examination of the dead body and surroundings by an agent of the office of state medical examiners but does not include dissection of the body for any purpose.

(g) “Work product” means preliminary drafts, notes, impressions, memoranda, working papers, and similar documents of a governmental entity, whether in electronic or other format.