All births shall be registered immediately. The attending physician or midwife shall file a Certificate of Birth, properly and completely filled out, with the Registrar within 10 days after the birth. If there is no attending physician or midwife, the father or mother of the child or the householder, owner of the premises, manager, or superintendent of the public or private institution shall notify the Registrar within 10 days after the birth.
(Ord. 22212 § 25, 1980-09-30)
A certificate of every death or fetal death shall be filed with the Registrar within three days after the occurrence is known, or if the place of death or fetal death is not known, where the body is found, within 24 hours thereafter. In every instance, a certificate shall be filed prior to the interment or other disposition of the body; provided that a certificate of fetal death shall not be required if the period of gestation is less than 20 weeks.
(Ord. 22212 § 25, 1980-09-30)
If the death occurred without medical attendance, the funeral director or person in charge of interment shall notify the Coroner. If the circumstances suggest that the death or fetal death was caused by unlawful or unnatural causes, the Coroner shall complete and sign the certificate. If he finds that the death is not due to unlawful or unnatural causes, he may refer the case to the Director, who will complete the certificate, noting thereon that no physician was in attendance at the time of death.
(Ord. 22212 § 25, 1980-09-30)
It shall be unlawful for any person to inter, deposit in a vault, grave, or tomb, cremate, or otherwise dispose of or disinter or remove from one registration district to another, or hold for more than 72 hours after death the body or remains of any person whose death occurred in the City of Tacoma, or any body which shall be found in this City, without obtaining from the Registrar a permit for burial, disinterment, cremation, or removal of such body.
No body of a dead person may be shipped by a common carrier unless it has first been embalmed. Special regulations govern in the case of communicable disease, and the manner of handling all such cases must be cleared with the Director on a case by case basis. These bodies shall be immediately red tagged for the information of mortuary personnel.
(Ord. 22212 § 25, 1980-09-30)