What This Statute Says
Information sharing between the medical examiner and procurement organizations is mandatory under the article.
A. The county medical examiner or individual legally delegated that authority shall release the name, contact information and available medical and social history of a decedent whose body is under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner to:
1. The designated procurement organization, hospital, accredited medical school, dental school, college or university of an anatomical gift executed pursuant to section 36-844.
2. Any procurement organization under procedures adopted by the medical examiner for coordination of the procurement of anatomical gifts.
B. If the decedent's body or part is medically suitable for transplantation, therapy, research or education, the medical examiner, or individual legally delegated that authority, shall release postmortem examination results to a procurement organization. The procurement organization may make a subsequent disclosure of the postmortem examination results or other information received from the medical examiner only if relevant to transplantation or therapy.
When This Statute Comes Into Play
The provision is triggered when a decedent is under medical examiner jurisdiction and is a potential or actual donor. The examiner shares the medical and social history needed to evaluate the gift, and after autopsy may share postmortem results relevant to transplant suitability. The procurement organization can pass that information forward only as needed for transplantation or therapy.
What This Means for Arizona Families
This statute ensures that medical-examiner-jurisdiction deaths do not become a black box for procurement organizations. The information needed to evaluate a donation flows promptly. The information needed to ensure recipient safety, including postmortem findings, also flows when relevant.
For families, the privacy boundary matters. The decedent's medical and postmortem information is shared only with the procurement organization and only for transplantation-related purposes. It is not shared with the general public, with employers, or with insurers. Our FAQ on making organ-donation wishes legally binding covers donor-side privacy. The narrow scope of information sharing under this section is calibrated so that the donor's gift can move forward without the family losing control over the broader medical record. Documented wishes in a healthcare directive remain the primary anchor for what gets shared and why.