Florida Statute 765.5185
“Corneal removal by medical examiners”
What it means
A narrow, specific authority: when an eye bank requests corneal tissue, a district medical examiner (or an appropriately qualified designee) may provide it from a decedent — but only when three conditions line up: the death is under the medical examiner's jurisdiction and an autopsy is required; no objection by the next of kin is known to the examiner; and removal will not interfere with the investigation or autopsy.
The section then closes the loop on liability: neither the examiner, the designee, nor the eye bank may be held liable in any civil or criminal action for failure to obtain the next of kin's consent.
- Applies only on request of an eye bank authorized under §765.518.
- Conditions: medical examiner jurisdiction plus a required autopsy, no known next-of-kin objection, and no interference with the investigation or autopsy.
- Removal authority runs to the district medical examiner or an appropriately qualified designee.
- No civil or criminal liability for failure to obtain next-of-kin consent when the section is followed.
How it plays out
This is the section behind a call we get a few times a year: a family discovers, after an autopsy, that corneas went to an eye bank nobody discussed. The statute permits exactly that when its conditions are met, and it immunizes the failure to ask. What it does not erase is a known objection — so we tell families who object to any recovery to say so to the medical examiner's office immediately. An objection only blocks removal once it is known.
Questions people ask
