Rutgers Law

NOTE: This section was repealed by L.2018 C.62, effective 2018-09-01.

New Jersey Statutes, Title: 52, STATE GOVERNMENT, DEPARTMENTS AND OFFICERS

    Chapter 17b: Establishment of department; "the department" defined

      Section: 52:17b-88.12: Findings, declarations relative to sudden death in epilepsy.

          
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:

a. Sudden, unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is a mysterious, rare condition in which typically young or middle-aged individuals with epilepsy die without a clear cause, and is generally defined by the medical community as a sudden, unexpected, non-traumatic, non-drowning death in an otherwise healthy individual with epilepsy, where the postmortem examination does not reveal an anatomic or toxicologic cause for the death;

b. SUDEP is believed to account for up to 17 percent of deaths in people with epilepsy;

c. Autopsy plays a key role in determining the diagnosis of SUDEP, yet the Institute of Medicine has found that SUDEP may be underreported for several reasons, including, but not limited to, a lack of awareness about SUDEP among medical examiners;

d. The cause of SUDEP is not known and opportunities for its prevention have been hindered by the lack of a systematic effort to collect information about persons who have died from SUDEP, as is done with many other disorders; and

e. It is appropriate to raise awareness of SUDEP among medical examiners by developing a SUDEP awareness program and to facilitate research into the causes and prevention of SUDEP by requiring that medical examiners in this State who determine that an individual's cause of death is SUDEP work with relevant organizations in the State to assist in requesting from next-of-kin that an individual's relevant medical information be sent to a SUDEP registry and that the individual's brain be donated for research purposes.

L.2013, c.91, s.1.

This section added to the Rutgers Database: 2013-08-14 10:32:55.