Chapter 228
2011 -- S 0478 SUBSTITUTE A AS
AMENDED
Enacted 07/01/11
A N A C T
RELATING TO
HEALTH AND SAFETY -- VITAL RECORDS
Introduced
By: Senators Perry,
Date Introduced: March 10, 2011
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapter 15-7 of the General Laws entitled
"Adoption of Children" is
hereby amended by adding thereto the following section:
15-7-5.1.
Contact preference form information. – Upon providing consent to an
adoption, the biological parent(s) shall be informed that,
consistent with subdivision 23-3-
15(g)(1),
an adoptee may obtain a non-certified copy of his/her unaltered, original
certificate of
birth upon his/her twenty-fifth (25th) birthday, and that
the birth parent is allowed and authorized
to file a contact preference form with the division of
vital records as provided in subdivision 23-
3-15(g)(2).
SECTION 2. Sections 23-3-1 and 23-3-15 of the General Laws
in Chapter 23-3 entitled
"Vital Records"
are hereby amended to read as follows:
23-3-1.
Definitions. --As used in this chapter:
(1) “Adoptee” means a
person who was born in this state and who has had an original
birth certificate sealed due to an adoption.
(2) “Adoptee vital
records file” means a file operated by the division of vital records that
maintains adoptees’ birth certificates, makes available the
contact preference forms, provides
adoptees with non-certified copies of their birth
certificates.
(3) “Adult adoptee”
means an adoptee twenty-five (25) years of age or older.
(4) “Birth parent” is
the person, the father or mother of genetic origin of a child, who is
legally presumed under the laws of this state to be the
father or mother of genetic origin of a
child.
(1) (5)
"Community of resident residence" means the city or
town within the state of a
person's home address at the time of his or her marriage or
death, or of his or her mother's home
address at the time of his or her birth.
(6) “Contact
preference form” means the form prepared and maintained by the division
that birth parent(s) of adoptees may file to express his
or her preference regarding contact with
the adoptee. The contact preference form shall include
language informing the birth parent(s) of
their ability to provide genetic, social, and health
history to the Passive Voluntary Adoption
Mutual Consent Registry as
defined in chapter 15-7.2.
(2) (7)
"Dead body" means a lifeless human body or parts of a lifeless human
body or its
bones from the state of which it reasonably may be
concluded that death recently occurred.
(8) “Division” means
the division of vital records as defined in chapter 3 of title 23.
(3) (9)
"Fetal death" means death prior to the complete expulsion or
extraction from its
mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the
duration of pregnancy; the death is
indicated by the fact that after the expulsion or extraction
the fetus does not breathe or show any
other evidence of life such as beating of the heart,
pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite
movement of the voluntary muscles.
(4) (10)
"Filing" means the presentation of a certificate, report, or other
record provided
for in this chapter, of a birth, death, fetal death,
adoption, marriage, or divorce for registration by
the division of vital records.
(5) (11)
"Final disposition" means the burial, interment, cremation, or other
disposition of
a dead body or fetus.
(6) (12)
"Institution" means any establishment, public or private, which
provides in-
patient medical, surgical, or diagnostic care or treatment,
or nursing, custodial or domiciliary care
to two (2) or more unrelated individuals, or to which
persons are committed by law.
(7) (13)
"Live birth" means the complete expulsion or extraction from its
mother of a
product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of
pregnancy, which, after that
expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any other evidences
of life such as beating of the heart,
pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of the
voluntary muscles, whether or not
the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is
attached.
(8) (14)
"Physician" means a person authorized or licensed to practice medicine
pursuant
to chapter 37 of title 5.
(9) (15)
"Registration" means the acceptance by the division of vital records
and the
incorporation in its official records of certificates, reports, or
other records provided for in this
chapter, or births, deaths, fetal deaths, adoptions,
marriages, or divorces.
(10) (16)
"Signing" or "Signature" means the application of either a
hand signature to a
paper record or an electronic process approved by the state
registrar of vital records.
(11) (17)
"System of vital records" means the registration, collection,
preservation,
amendment, and certification of vital statistics records, and
activities related to them including the
tabulation, analysis, and publication of statistical data
derived from those records.
(12) (18)
"Vital records" means records of birth, death, fetal death, marriage,
divorce, and
data related to those records.
23-3-15. New certificates of birth following adoption -- Legitimation and paternity
determination. -- (a)
The state registrar of vital records shall establish a
new certificate of birth
for a person born in this state when he or she receives
the following:
(1) An adoption report
as provided in § 23-3-14 or a certified copy of the decree of
adoption together with the information necessary to identify
the original certificate of birth and to
establish a new certificate of birth; except that a new
certificate of birth shall not be established if
the court decreeing the adoption, the adoptive parents,
or the adopted person requests that a new
certificate shall not be established.
(2) A request that a new
certificate be established and evidence required by regulation
proving that the person has been legitimated, or that a court
of competent jurisdiction has
determined the paternity of the person; provided, however, that
where a court of competent
jurisdiction has determined the paternity of the person, the name
of the person who has been
adjudicated as being the father shall be inserted on the birth
certificate.
(b) When a new
certificate of birth is established, the actual place and date of birth shall
be shown. It shall be substituted for the original
certificate of birth.
(1) Thereafter, the
original certificate and the evidence of adoption, paternity, or
legitimation shall not be subject to inspection except as
allowed by this chapter in the case of
adoption by the adult adoptee, or upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction or as
provided
by regulation.
(2) Upon receipt of a
notice of annulment of adoption, the original certificate of birth
shall be restored to its place in the files and the new
certificate and evidence shall not be subject
to inspection except upon order of a court of competent
jurisdiction.
(3) Upon receipt from a
passive voluntary adoption mutual consent registry of a
certificate provided for in § 15-7.2-12(b), the adult adoptee
named in the certificate, and only that
person, shall be entitled to receive non-certified copies of
his or her original birth certificate.
(c) If no certificate of
birth is on file for the person for whom a new certificate is to be
established under this section, a delayed certificate of birth
shall be filed with the state registrar of
vital records as provided in § 23-3-12 or 23-3-13, before a
new certificate of birth is established,
except that when the date and place of birth and parentage
have been established in accordance
with this chapter in the adoption proceedings, a delayed
certificate shall not be required.
(d) When a new
certificate of birth is established by the state registrar of vital records,
all
copies of the original certificate of birth in the custody
of any custodian of permanent local
records in this state shall be sealed from inspection or
forwarded to the state registrar of vital
records, as he or she shall direct.
(e) (1) The state registrar shall, upon request, prepare and
register a certificate in this state
for a person born in a foreign country who is not a
citizen of the
adopted through a court of competent jurisdiction in this
state. The certificate shall be established
upon receipt of a report of adoption from the court
decreeing the adoption, proof of the date and
place of the child's birth, and a request from the court,
the adopting parents, or the adopted person
if eighteen (18) years of age or over that a certificate
be prepared. The certificate shall be labeled
"certificate of foreign
birth" and shall show the actual country of birth. After registration of
the
birth certificate in the new name of the adopted person,
the state registrar shall seal and file the
report of adoption which shall not be subject to inspection
except upon order of a court of
competent jurisdiction or as provided by regulation.
(2) If the child was
born in a foreign country but was a citizen of the
time of birth, the state registrar shall not prepare a
"certificate of foreign birth" and shall notify
the adoptive parents of the procedures for obtaining a
revised birth certificate for their child
through the
(f) When a new
certificate of birth is established following an adoption or legitimation in
this state, and when no record of the original birth is on
file at the city or town of occurrence, the
state registrar of vital records shall cause a copy to be
filed with the registrar of births in the city
or town where the child was born and the city or town of
residence of the parents indicated on the
new certificate, if that residence is within the state.
(g)(1) The division
shall establish, maintain and operate the adoptee vital records file.
Beginning July 1, 2012, upon written application by an
adult adoptee who was born in the State
of
original certificate of birth of the adoptee, with procedures,
filing fees and waiting periods
identical to those imposed upon non-adopted citizens of the
state.
(2) The division
shall prescribe and, upon request, shall make available to each birth
parent of an adoptee named on the original birth
certificate, a contact preference form on which
the birth parent may state a preference regarding contact
by an adoptee who is the birth child of
the birth parent. The contact preference form shall be
returned to the division. Upon such a
request, the division shall also provide the birth
parent with an update medical history form,
which may be completed and returned to the Passive
Voluntary Adoption Mutual Consent
Registry. The contact preference form shall provide the birth
parent with the following options
from which the birth parent shall select one:
“(a)
I would like to be contacted.
(b) I would prefer to
be contacted only through an intermediary.
(c) I would prefer
not to be contacted at this time.”
(3) When the division
receives a completed contact preference form from a birth parent,
the division shall place the form on file and create an
index of all contact preference forms filed.
When the vital records office receives a request for
an original birth certificate they will then
open the adoptee's sealed file and check the file for the
names of the birth parent(s). These names
will then be cross referenced with the birth parent(s)
names listed on the contact preference form
index. If there is a match, the vital records office will
provide the adoptee a copy of the contact
preference form. The division shall inform the adoptee of his or
her right to contact the Passive
Voluntary Adoption Mutual Consent Registry to see if
an updated medical history form has been
filed by his or her birth parent.
(4) Beginning
September 1, 2011, the division shall make reasonable efforts to inform the
public of the existence of the adoptee vital records file;
the ability of adult adoptees born in the
State of
provisions of this chapter; and the ability of the birth
parent(s) of adoptees to file a contact
preference form with the division of vital records.
(h) The division
shall maintain the following statistics, which shall be made available to
the general public on a quarterly basis or more
frequently if possible:
(1) Number of
original birth certificates released since the effective date of this bill;
(2) Number of contact
preference forms filed; and
(3) Number of birth
parent(s) who indicated on the contact preference form that they
would like to be contacted, would like to be contacted but
only through an intermediary, or do not
want to be contacted.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC01337/SUB A/2
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