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![handle is hein.sag/sagin0024 and id is 1 raw text is: STATE OF INDIANA
OFFICE OF THE ATORNEY GENERAL
INDIANA GOVERNMBNT CENTER SOUTH. FIFTH FLOOR
402 WEST WASHINGTON STRBET * INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46204-2770
JEFFREY A. MODISETT 1LEPHONE(317)232-6201
ATTORNEY GENERAL
January 5, 1998
lichard D. Feldman, M.D.
State Health Commissioner
Indiana State Department of Health
2 North Meridian Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204
Re: Official Opinion 98-01: Availability of death certificates and information
from those certificates to the public.
Dear Dr. Feldman:
You have posed the following question:
Is the death certificate, or information from the death certificate, other than certain
items made public by statute, available to any person making a request to the local
health department, regardless of whether that person has a direct interest in the
record?
It is my opinion that, aside from the exception set forth at Indiana Code l6-37-3-9(d), the
death certificate and information from the death certificate are disclosable public records.
ANALYSIS
What is a death cert ficate?
The term death certificate is commonly used to denominate what are actually
two separate documents. A certificate of death is filed with the local health officer by
the person in charge of interment. IND. CODE § 16-37-3-3. The person in charge of
interment fills out a form prepared by the state and presents it to the attending physician
who certifies the cause of death upon the certificate of death [.] IND. CoDE § 16-37-3-
5. After the certificate of death is filed with the local health officer, the officer is to
extract certain information from that form and maintain that information as a permanent
public record. IND. CODE § 16-37-3-9(a), (b).
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