Section 3705.29. Prohibited acts

(A) No person shall do any of the following:

(1) Purposely make any false statement in a certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or in an application or amendment of it, or purposely supply false information with the intent that that information be used in the preparation of any such report, record, or certificate, or amendment of it;

(2) Without lawful authority and with intent to deceive, counterfeit, alter, amend, or mutilate any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any certified copy of it;

(3) Purposely obtain, possess, use, sell, furnish, or attempt to obtain, possess, use, sell, or furnish to another for the purpose of deception any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any certified copy of it, or any certificate, record, or report that is counterfeit, altered, or amended or false in whole or part;

(4) Purposely obtain, possess, use, sell, furnish, or attempt to obtain, possess, use, sell, or furnish to another for the purpose of deception any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter, or any certified copy of it, that relates to the birth of another person, whether living or dead;

(5) Without lawful authority, possess any certificate, record, or report required by this chapter or any copy of such a certificate, record, or report, knowing it to have been stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained.

(B) No person employed by the office of vital statistics or a local registrar shall purposely furnish or possess a birth record or certified copy of a birth record with intent that it be used for deception.

(C) No person shall do any of the following:

(1) Purposely refuse to provide information required by this chapter or rules adopted under it;

(2) Purposely transport out of this state or accept for interment or other disposition a dead body without a permit required by this chapter;

(3) Knowingly prepare, issue, sell, or give any record or certificate that is alleged to be an original vital record or a certified copy of a vital record if the person knows or has reason to know that it is not an original vital record or a certified copy of a vital record;

(4) Refuse to comply with the requirements of this chapter or violate any of the provisions of this chapter.

(D) No officer or employee of the department of health shall knowingly reveal or provide any information contained in an adoption file maintained by the department under section 3705.12, 3705.121, 3705.122, 3705.123, or 3705.124 of the Revised Code to any person, or knowingly reveal or provide the contents of an adoption file to any person, unless authorized to do so by section 3705.126 of the Revised Code.

(E) If a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs under any circumstances mentioned in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, the coroner of the county in which the death or fetal death occurs, or a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, shall certify the cause of that death unless the death was reported to the coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner and that person, after a preliminary examination, declined to assert jurisdiction with respect to the death or fetal death.

(F) No physician other than the coroner in the county in which a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs, or a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, may certify any death or fetal death that occurs under any circumstances other than natural.

(G) If a death, or a fetal death of at least twenty weeks of gestation, occurs under any circumstances mentioned in section 313.12 of the Revised Code, no person shall knowingly present a death or fetal death certificate for the purpose of obtaining certification of the cause of death to any physician other than the coroner in the county in which the death or fetal death occurred, or to a deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner serving in an equivalent capacity, unless that death or fetal death was reported to the coroner, deputy coroner, medical examiner, or deputy medical examiner and that person, after a preliminary examination, declined to assert jurisdiction with respect to the death or fetal death.

(H) No person, with intent to defraud or knowing that the person is facilitating a fraud, shall do either of the following:

(1) Certify a cause of death in violation of the prohibition of division (E) or (F) of this section;

(2) Obtain or attempt to obtain a certification of the cause of a death or fetal death in violation of the prohibition of division (G) of this section.

Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. 56, SB 23, §1, eff. 3/20/2015.

Effective Date: 09-18-1996; 08-17-2006; 2008 SB175 09-12-2008