Disposition of human body parts by hospitals.

(1) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to license and regulate clinics, including surgical clinics, and general acute care hospitals. This bill would require a surgical clinic or general acute care hospital, as part of the admissions process, to ask the patient whether the patient has a religious observation that requires the retention of human body parts, as defined, and, if so, if the patient has a funeral home to which a human body part that is severed from the patient may be released. The bill would require a surgical clinic or general acute care hospital, when a patient requests retention of a severed human body part, to note that fact on the patient's record, and to retain the severed human body part until releasing the human body part to the patient-specified funeral home. The bill exempts from the retention requirement a human body part that the surgical clinic or general acute care hospital deems to be potentially infectious. (2) Existing law, the Cemetery and Funeral Act, requires the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau to license and regulate funeral homes and prescribes the means by which human remains may be properly disposed. Existing law defines "human remains" for this purpose as the body of a deceased person, regardless of its stage of decomposition, and cremated remains. Improper disposition of human remains is a crime. This bill would include in the definition of "human remains" a severed human body part that was requested to be retained pursuant to the above provisions and that has not been deemed to be potentially infectious by the surgical clinic or general acute care hospital. By expanding the definition of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law prescribes the methods by which medical waste generators dispose of medical waste and defines "medical waste" for that purpose. Existing law exempts specified materials from the definition of medical waste, including waste generated in biotechnology that does not contain human blood or blood products or animal blood or blood products suspected of being contaminated with infectious agents known to be communicable to humans or a highly communicable disease. This bill would exempt from the definition of medical waste a severed human body part that was requested to be retained pursuant to the above provisions, unless the human body part has been deemed by the surgical clinic or general acute care hospital to be potentially infectious. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.