Assembly Appropriations Committee Holds Next Of Kin Legislation

Sacramento –Assembly Bill 1054, authored by Assemblymember Gene Mullin (D-South San Francisco), was held by the Assembly Appropriations Committee today due to significant reimbursable mandated annual General Fund costs to county coroners, likely in excess of $5 million for specified notification requirements, and for the return of body parts, which would require refrigerated storage space and additional staff.

“The opposition wanted us to limit the bill to just notification and I thought families deserved more,” Mullin said. “It is unconscionable that costs to the state should override the ability of families to make decisions about the final disposition of their loved ones.”

AB 1054 would have required coroners to notify next of kin of their authority to retain parts of the body, seek consent from the next of kin and then offer to return organs after the coroner has made a determination as to the circumstances, cause, manner and mode of certain deaths. The bill would not require a coroner to provide this information if, in the opinion of the coroner, providing notification or an offer to return an organ would compromise the integrity of an ongoing or expected criminal investigation or would constitute a public health hazard.

Assembly Bill 1054 will not move this year. We will look to move the bill in January.

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