Medical examiners could face criminal penalties for harvesting organs without first notifying and receiving consent from the deceased individual’s family under a new bill by Representative Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa.
House Bill 71 makes it a Class C Felony for a medical examiner to harvest the organs of the deceased person without notifying the next of kin. Although already a crime in the state, there are no penalties currently outlined in the law to give it teeth.
“This adds a penalty to that because, apparently, this is a problem,” England told the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the bill Wednesday.
The bill is a response to the story of at least eight families who sued the Alabama Department of Corrections in 2024, alleging that the department harvested their incarcerated loved ones’ organs without consent and sent them to the University of Alabama Birmingham.
The lawsuit is still underway. The bill now moves to the full House for consideration.
