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144.212 DEFINITIONS.
    Subdivision 1. Scope. As used in sections 144.211 to 144.227, the following terms have
the meanings given:
    Subd. 1a. Amendment. "Amendment" means completion or correction of a vital record.
    Subd. 2. Commissioner. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of health.
    Subd. 2a. Delayed registration. "Delayed registration" means registration of a record of
birth or death filed one or more years after the date of birth or death.
    Subd. 3. File. "File" means to present a vital record or report for registration to the Office of
the State Registrar and to have the vital record or report accepted for registration by the Office
of the State Registrar.
    Subd. 4. Final disposition. "Final disposition" means the burial, interment, cremation,
removal from the state, or other authorized disposition of a dead body or dead fetus.
    Subd. 4a. Institution. "Institution" means a public or private establishment that:
(1) provides inpatient or outpatient medical, surgical, or diagnostic care or treatment; or
(2) provides nursing, custodial, or domiciliary care, or to which persons are committed
by law.
    Subd. 5. Registration. "Registration" means the process by which vital records are
completed, filed, and incorporated into the official records of the Office of the State Registrar.
    Subd. 6. State registrar. "State registrar" means the commissioner of health or a designee.
    Subd. 7. System of vital statistics. "System of vital statistics" includes the registration,
collection, preservation, amendment, and certification of vital records, the collection of other
reports required by sections 144.211 to 144.227, and related activities including the tabulation,
analysis, publication, and dissemination of vital statistics.
    Subd. 8. Vital record. "Vital record" means a record or report of birth, stillbirth, death,
marriage, dissolution and annulment, and data related thereto. The birth record is not a medical
record of the mother or the child.
    Subd. 9. Vital statistics. "Vital statistics" means the data derived from records and reports
of birth, death, fetal death, induced abortion, marriage, dissolution and annulment, and related
reports.
    Subd. 10. Local registrar. "Local registrar" means an individual designated under section
144.214, subdivision 1, to perform the duties of a local registrar.
    Subd. 11. Consent to disclosure. "Consent to disclosure" means an affidavit filed with the
state registrar which sets forth the following information:
(1) the current name and address of the affiant;
(2) any previous name by which the affiant was known;
(3) the original and adopted names, if known, of the adopted child whose original birth
record is to be disclosed;
(4) the place and date of birth of the adopted child;
(5) the biological relationship of the affiant to the adopted child; and
(6) the affiant's consent to disclosure of information from the original birth record of the
adopted child.
History: 1978 c 699 s 2; 1986 c 444; 1997 c 228 s 3-5; 1Sp2001 c 9 art 15 s 1-7; 2002 c 379
art 1 s 113; 2005 c 60 s 2

Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes