2014 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 72 - CORONERS, INQUESTS, AND MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS 72.025 Circumstances requiring post-mortem examination to be performed by coroner.
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72.025 Circumstances requiring post-mortem examination to be performed
by coroner.
Coroners shall require a post-mortem examination to be performed in the following
circumstances:
(1) When the death of a human being appears to be caused by homicide or
violence;
(2) When the death of a human being appears to be the result of suicide;
(3) When the death of a human being appears to be the result of the presence of
drugs or poisons in the body;
(4) When the death of a human being appears to be the result of a motor vehicle
accident and the operator of the motor vehicle left the scene of the accident or
the body was found in or near a roadway or railroad;
(5) When the death of a human being occurs while the person is in a state mental
institution or mental hospital when there is no previous medical history to
explain the death, or while the person is in police custody, a jail or penal
institution;
(6) When the death of a human being occurs in a motor vehicle accident and when
an external examination of the body does not reveal a lethal traumatic injury;
(7) When the death of a human being appears to be the result of a fire or
explosion;
(8) When the death of a child appears to indicate child abuse prior to the death;
(9) When the manner of death appears to be other than natural;
(10) When human skeletonized remains are found;
(11) When post-mortem decomposition of a human corpse exists to the extent that
external examination of the corpse cannot rule out injury or where the
circumstances of death cannot rule out the commission of a crime;
(12) When the death of a human being appears to be the result of drowning;
(13) When the death of an infant appears to be caused by sudden infant death
syndrome in that the infant has no previous medical history to explain the
death;
(14) When the death of a human being occurs as a result of an accident;
(15) When the death of a human being occurs under the age of forty (40) and there
is no past medical history to explain the death;
(16) When the death of a human being occurs at the work site and there is no
apparent cause of death such as an injury or when industrial toxics may have
contributed to the cause of death;
(17) When the body is to be cremated and there is no past medical history to
explain the death;
(18) When the death of a human being is sudden and unexplained; and
(19) When the death of a human being occurs and the decedent is not receiving
treatment by a licensed physician and there is no ascertainable medical history
to indicate the cause of death.
Effective:July 15, 1998
History: Amended 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 406, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1998. --
Amended 1986 Ky. Acts ch. 316, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1986. -- Created 1982
Ky. Acts ch. 195, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1982.
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