HCS HB 1975 -- BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS

SPONSOR:  Barry (Hosmer)

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Children,
Health and Families by a vote of 10 to 4.

This substitute revises provisions pertaining to birth and death
records.  The substitute:

(1)  Specifies that deputies appointed by local registrars can
perform some or all of the statutory or regulatory
responsibilities of local registrars;

(2)  Allows certification of live birth which occurs at or en
route to an institution to be by an electronic process approved
by the Department of Health and Senior Services;

(3)  Requires a birth certificate issued for a child born as a
result of in vitro fertilization to be consistent with subsection
5 of Section 193.085, RSMo;

(4)  Specifies procedures for a certificate of birth of a child
born to a surrogate mother;

(5)  Allows persons in charge of the final disposition of a dead
body to obtain a medical certification and allows certification
by an electronic process approved by the department;

(6)  Authorizes the State Registrar to prepare digital images of
vital statistics, certificates, and reports;

(7)  Authorizes the department to disclose upon request, copies
of birth records more than 90 years old and death records more
than 50 years old.  The department is required to make the
records and indexes for the records available on the Internet by
December 31, 2004;

(8)  Increases the fees charged for the issuance of a
certification or copy of a vital record from $10 to $13;

(9)  Increases the amount credited to specific funds by the
Director of the Department of Revenue for each vital record fee
collected.  The director is required to credit $4 to the General
Revenue Fund; $5 to the Children's Trust Fund; and $3 to the
Missouri Public Health Services Fund;

(10)  Requires that moneys in the Missouri Public Health Services
Fund be used to place the records and indexes for the records on
the Internet, to support the development of an Internet-based
birth and death registration system, and to support line costs
for local registrars;

(11)  Requires the Internet system for birth and death record
registration to be implemented by December 31, 2005;

(12)  Increases the fees charged for the issuance of a
certification of a birth or death record by a local registrar
from $10 to $13;

(13)  Allows an application to be made to a probate division for
letters of administration upon an estate of a person supposed to
be dead because the person was exposed to a specific peril of
death due to an actual or suspected terrorist event; and

(14)  Specifies that exposure of a person to a specific peril of
death may be a sufficient basis for determining that the person
died within five years after the date the person's absence
commenced.

FISCAL NOTE:  Not available at time of printing.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that the purpose of the bill is to
automate the vital records system in Missouri.  Citizens and
researchers interested in conducting genealogical research would
have improved access to historical vital records.  Because of the
terrorist attack last year, it is necessary to revise the
statutes pertaining to the administration of an estate and the
certification of death.

Testifying for the bill were Representative Hosmer; and
Department of Health and Senior Services.

OPPONENTS:  Those who oppose the bill say that the increased fees
charged for the receipt of birth and death records will burden
parents who request copies of vital records pertaining to their
children and will burden persons who conduct estate settlements.

Testifying against the bill was Missouri Press Association.

Joseph Deering, Legislative Analyst

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated October 11, 2002 at 9:03 am