Public Health Law § 4209 · Title 2. Autopsy and Dissection
Autopsies; right to perform
Text — Law content up to date as of October 9, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 4209. Autopsies; right to perform. No person shall make any incision preparatory to or during an autopsy except (a) a duly licensed medical physician or osteopathic physician, (b) a resident physician, (c) a medical intern, (d) a student in a registered medical school, dental school or chiropractic college while under the supervision of the professor or teacher, (e) an instructor of anatomy, (f) a dental resident or licensed dentist while under the supervision of a physician.
A physician performing an autopsy may be assisted by a trained mortuary attendant (diener).
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 9, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PBH4209
- Text hash
- sha256 93804a4a364a4621cc660f7cdabc46e87b277031be06bd929a37e247539cbb79
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.