HCS SCS SB 1137 -- BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS

SPONSOR:  Bentley (Hosmer)

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Children,
Families and Health by a vote of 15 to 1.

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 a live birth which occurs at or en
route to an institution to be by a signature or 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)  Allows persons in charge of the final disposition of a dead
body to obtain a medical certification and allows certification
by a signature or electronic process approved by the department;

(5)  Authorizes the Registrar of Vital Statistics to prepare
digital images of vital statistics, certificates, and reports;

(6)  Requires that original birth records more than 90 years old
and death records more than 50 years old be transferred to the
State Archives;

(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:  Estimated Net Income to the Missouri Public Health
Services Fund of $6,443 in FY 2003, $27,444 in FY 2004, and
$42,753 in FY 2005.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that modernizing access to historical
vital records would provide interested persons and researchers an
improved alternative way to the current system.  Supporters also
state that modernizing the current system would provide an
alternative way to certify births and deaths in Missouri.

Testifying for the bill were Senator Bentley; Department of
Health and Senior Services; and Missouri Funeral Directors
Association.

OPPONENTS:  Those who oppose the bill say that the increased fees
for obtaining birth and death records should be established at an
actual cost rate and not established as a revenue source to
create new programs.  Opponents also state that the surrogate
mother and birth record provision contained in the bill could
result in various lawsuits and does not contain a procedure
allowing for the adoption of the child.  This provision was
removed from the substitute.

Testifying against the bill were Missouri Press Association; and
Campaign Life of Missouri.

Joseph Deering, Legislative Analyst

Missouri House of Representatives
Last Updated October 11, 2002 at 9:04 am