If a person dies as a result of violence, apparent suicide, when in apparent good health, unattended by a physician, or in any suspicious or unusual manner or while an inmate of a penal or correctional institution or stillbirths not attended by a physician, a person having knowledge of the death immediately shall notify the county medical examiner's office. This procedure also must be followed upon discovery of anatomical material suspected of being or determined to be a part of a human body.

The county medical examiner shall make immediate inquiry into the cause and manner of death and shall reduce the findings to writing on forms provided for this purpose retaining one copy and forwarding one copy to the coroner. In the case of violent death, one copy must be forwarded to the county solicitor of the county in which the death occurred. The county medical examiner must notify in writing the deceased person's next-of-kin, if known, that, in the course of performing the autopsy, body parts may have been retained for the purpose of investigating the cause and manner of death.

In performing an autopsy or postmortem examination, no body parts, as defined in Section 44-43-320, removed from the body may be used for any purpose other than to determine the cause or manner of death unless the person authorized to consent, as defined in Section 44-43-330, has given informed consent to the procedure. The person giving the informed consent must be given the opportunity to give informed consent and authorize the procedure on a witnessed, written consent form using language understandable to the average lay person after face-to-face communication with a physician, coroner, or medical examiner about the procedure. If the person authorizing the procedure is unable to consent in person, consent may be given through a recorded telephonic communication.