La. R.S. § 40:1061.25 Remains; Disposal In Accordance With Applicable Regulations; Post-Abortion Harvesting of Fetal Organs Prohibited; Penalties

• Library: Louisiana Statutes
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current with changes from the 2023 Legislative Session
• Year: 2023
• Citation: La. R.S. § 40:1061.25

A.

(1) Each physician who performs or induces an abortion which does not result in a live birth shall [insure] ensure that the remains of the child are disposed of by interment or cremation, in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 8:651 et seq., except in the case of an abortion induced by the administration of medications when the evacuation of any human remains occurs at a later time, neither in the presence of the inducing physician nor at the facility in which the physician administered the inducing medications.

(2) The department shall promulgate in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act all rules as are necessary to facilitate the transfer and burial of aborted human remains in a manner consistent with the transfer and burial of unclaimed human remains.

B. With respect to post-abortion harvesting of fetal organs, tissues, and cells, the legislature hereby finds the following:

(1) The United States Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed. 2d 147 (1973), and its progeny establish a constitutionalized right of a woman to choose to terminate her pregnancy. However, the court has never endorsed a right to harvest the body parts of unborn human beings, whether for profit or donation.

(2) The protocol known commonly as the "dead donor rule" is a longstanding ethical norm that protects the integrity of human organ donation by providing that organ donors must be dead before procurement of organs begins, and that organ procurement itself must not cause the death of the donor. The harvesting of organs, tissues, and cells from unborn children whose deaths are directly caused by induced abortion, as defined in R.S. 40:1061.9, violate the dead donor rule in both respects due to the following conditions:

(a) The unborn children are alive when the fetal repositioning and crushing point decisions are made by the abortion provider with the goal of procuring intact fetal hearts, lungs, livers, brains, and other organs and tissues.

(b) The repositioning of the fetus and crushing above and below the thorax to procure intact fetal organs, tissues, and cells is itself the cause of death of the human being from whom the organs are then harvested.

(c) The human being whose fetal organs are procured does not have the capacity to consent to organ donation, and proxy consent for donation by the unborn child's mother is invalid given that the unborn child is alive at the time the consent forms are signed.