Public Health Law § 4215 · Title 2. Autopsy and Dissection
Cadavers; burial after autopsy and dissection
Text — Law content up to date as of October 9, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 4215. Cadavers; burial after autopsy and dissection. 1. In all cases in which a dissection has been made, the provisions of this article, requiring the burial or other lawful disposition of a body of a deceased person, and the provisions of law providing for the punishment of interference with or injuries to it, apply equally to the remains of the body after dissection as soon as the lawful purposes of such dissection have been accomplished.
2. In all cases in which an autopsy or dissection has been made of an unclaimed body, the provisions of this article requiring the burial or other lawful disposition of the body of a deceased person and punishing, interference with or injuries to it, shall apply equally to the remains of such body as soon as the lawful purposes of such autopsy or dissection have been accomplished, except that the persons having possession of the body may, in their discretion, cause it to be either buried or cremated, or may retain parts of such body for scientific purposes.
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/PBH4215
- Text hash
- sha256 cb6c7fc0a49381c7fce745227db9d022a89288c357433657e769487859639792
- 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.