2018 Alaska Statutes
Title 18. Health, Safety, Housing, Human Rights, and Public Defender
Chapter 50. Vital Statistics Act
Article 3. Registration Requirements, Procedures, and Certificates.
Sec. 18.50.230. Death registration; disclosure for child support purposes.
(a) A death certificate for each death that occurs in the state shall be filed with the local registrar of the registration district in which the death occurred within three days after death and before final disposition of the body or removal of the body from the state, except as provided by regulation in special problem cases. For the purpose of this section, if the place of death is unknown, a death certificate shall be filed in the registration district in which the dead body is found. When a death occurs on a moving conveyance a death certificate shall be filed in the registration district in which the dead body is first removed from the conveyance.
(b) The funeral director or person acting as the funeral director who first assumes custody of a dead body shall file the death certificate. The funeral director or the person acting as the funeral director shall obtain the personal data from the next of kin or the best qualified person or source available and the medical certification of cause of death from the person responsible for this information.
(c) The medical certification shall be completed and signed within 24 hours after death by the physician in charge of the patient's care for the illness or condition that resulted in death except when an official inquiry or inquest is required and except as provided by regulation in special problem cases.
(d) When a death occurs without medical attendance, or when official inquiry is required, the department shall provide by regulation, in accordance with law, the responsibility for completing and signing the medical certification. This subsection is intended to include, among others, cases involving a medical examiner and cases involving presumption of death.
(e) To assist the Alaska Court System to remove the names of deceased persons from jury lists under AS 09.20.050(c), the state registrar of vital statistics shall forward to the administrative director of the Alaska Court System the names of persons for whom certificates of death were issued and reported to the registrar.
(f) A death certificate issued under this section must include the decedent's social security number, if ascertainable. Upon request, the registrar shall provide a decedent's social security number to the child support services agency created in AS 25.27.010, or the child support agency of another state, for child support purposes authorized under law.
