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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a law prohibiting New York City's morgues and hospitals from sending unclaimed bodies to medical and mortuary schools without the consent of the dead person or next of kin.
The law, effective in 30 days, requires the consent in writing.
Sponsors say unclaimed bodies were given to schools for dissection, autopsy or study after 48 hours, resulting in instances when the family was unaware of the death. Some of those families would have objected for religious reasons to embalming or dissection.
Last week, the Associated Medical Schools of New York said its eight member schools in the city stopped accepting unclaimed bodies from the medical examiner's office and weren't opposing the new law.
They plan to promote their own donor programs to support training and research.
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