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City of Rochester, NY
Monroe County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
[Amended 8-22-1958; 9-24-1968 by Ord. No. 68-312]
The birth of each and every child born in this City shall be registered within five days after the date of each birth with the Registrar. In each case where a physician, midwife or person acting as midwife was in attendance upon the birth, it shall be the duty of such physician, midwife or person acting as midwife to file said certificate.
[Amended 8-22-1958; 9-24-1968 by Ord. No. 68-312; 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
The death of each and every person occurring within this City shall be registered within 72 hours with the Registrar. The certificate of death shall contain such information and in such form as the State Commissioner of Health may prescribe. The personal particulars called for shall be authenticated by the signature of the informant, who may be any competent person acquainted with the facts. The statement of facts relating to the disposition of the body shall be signed by the undertaker in charge of the corpse. The medical certificate shall be made and signed by the physician, if any, last in attendance on the deceased. It shall be the duty of the undertaker to present the medical certificate of the attending physician. In case of any death occurring without medical attendance, it shall be the duty of the undertaker or other person to whose knowledge the death may come, to notify the Local Health Officer of such death, and when so notified, the Health Officer shall immediately investigate and certify as to the cause of death, provided that if the Health Officer has reason to believe that the death may have been due to unlawful act or neglect he or she shall then refer the case to the Monroe County Medical Examiner or other proper officer for his or her investigation and certification. The Monroe County Medical Examiner, whose duty it is to hold an inquest on the body of a deceased person and to make the certificate of death required for burial permit, shall state in his or her certificate the name of the disease causing death, or if from external causes, the means of death.
Every physician, midwife and undertaker shall register his or her name, address and occupation with the local registrar of the district in which he or she resides.
Physicians are required to report ophthalmia neonatorum (babies' sore eyes) to the Local Health Officer within 24 hours from the time when first seen. A midwife, nurse, or other person having charge must report immediately to Health Officer or physician inflamed, reddened eyes of infant within the age of two weeks.
[Amended 8-22-1958; 9-24-1968 by Ord. No. 68-312; 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
The Registrar or person authorized by him or her shall be authorized to issue certifications of births and certified copies of deaths on file in the Registrar's office upon payment of a fee of $0.25 for each such copy, except that no fee shall be charged for copies to be used for school entrance or employment certificates under the Education Law or for purposes of public relief or government compensation.
[Amended 9-24-1968 by Ord. No. 68-312; 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
The body of any person whose death occurs in this City or which shall be found dead therein shall not be interred, deposited in a vault or tomb, cremated or otherwise disposed of, or removed from or into any registration district, or be temporarily held pending further disposition more than 72 hours after death unless a permit for burial, removal, or other disposition thereof shall have been properly issued by the Registrar. No such burial permit or removal permit shall be issued by the Registrar until, whenever practicable, a complete and satisfactory certificate of death has been filed with him or her.
[Amended 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
No undertaker shall allow any place or establishment used, operated, or maintained by him or her in the undertaking business to be used as a public morgue. If any dead human body is brought to any such place or establishment, and if arrangements are not made for the burial or cremation of such body within a reasonable time after the hour of death, the body shall be taken by the undertaker to the County Morgue, awaiting final disposition.
It shall be unlawful to inter or bury any dead human body in any place within the City other than a duly established cemetery or in a crypt existing at the time of the adoption of this article.
[1]
Editor's Note: See also Ch. 43, Cemeteries.
[Amended 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
No person in charge of any premises on which interments or cremations are made shall inter or permit the interment or other disposition of any body unless it is accompanied by a burial, cremation or transit permit, as herein provided. Such person shall endorse upon the permit, the date of interment, or cremation over his or her signature, and shall return all permits so endorsed to the Registrar within seven days from the date of interment or cremation. He or she shall keep a record of all bodies interred or otherwise disposed of on the premises under his or her charge, in each case stating the name of each deceased person, place of death, date of burial or disposal, and name and address of the undertaker; which record shall at all times be open to official inspection.
[Amended 2-14-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-22]
A. 
It shall be the duty of every person taking charge of the preparation for burial of the body of any person to ascertain whether such person died of a communicable disease, and if such person died or smallpox, Asiatic cholera, diphtheria, glanders, plague, scarlet fever or typhus fever, it shall be his or her duty to cause it promptly to be placed in a coffin or casket, which shall then be immediately and permanently closed. This regulation shall not be construed to prohibit the embalming of any such body, but if the body is to be embalmed, the undertaker shall cause such embalming to be done immediately upon taking charge of the body. Immediately after the embalming, he or she shall cause such body to be placed in a coffin or casket as hereinabove directed. After handling, embalming or preparing for burial the body of a person dead of a communicable disease, such parts of the person's garments, and utensils or other articles of the undertaker and his or her assistants, as may have been liable to contamination with ineffective material, shall be immediately cleansed or disinfected or sterilized.
B. 
After handling the body of a person who died of smallpox, the undertaker or embalmer and his or her assistants shall be subject to the regulations of the State Sanitary Code pertaining to smallpox contacts.
A public or church funeral shall not be held of any person who has died of Asiatic cholera, diptheria, meningococcus meningitis, plague, poliomyelitis (acute anterior), scarlet fever, smallpox or typhus fever, unless the consent of the local Health Officer has been first obtained.