TITLE 23
Health and Safety

   § 23-3-23  Disclosure of records. – (a) To protect the integrity of vital statistics records, to insure their proper use, and to insure the efficient and proper administration of the vital records system, it shall be unlawful for any person to permit inspection of or to disclose information contained in vital statistics records, or to copy or issue a copy of all or part of any vital statistics record except as authorized by regulation.

   (b) The director of health may authorize under appropriate safeguards the disclosure of data contained in vital statistics records for research purposes.

   (c) Information in vital statistics records indicating that a birth occurred out of wedlock shall not be disclosed except as provided by regulation or upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction, or in the case of persons born one hundred (100) years before the date of inspection.

   (d) Appeals from decisions of the custodians of permanent local records refusing to disclose information, or to permit inspection of or copying of records, of persons born one hundred (100) years before the date of inspection, under the authority of this section and regulation issued under this section, shall be made to the state registrar of vital records. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, those records shall be open for research to any member of a legally incorporated genealogy society and those societies shall be permitted to incorporate statistics derived from those records in their publications, upon receipt of permission of the director of health; and provided, further, that with the exception of attorneys at law, title examiners and members of legally incorporated genealogical societies, no person, except the person whose birth is recorded, if over eighteen (18) years of age, or his or her parent or guardian if a minor, or his or her issue shall have any access to or be permitted to examine the original or any copy of the birth certificate or birth record, of any person in the custody of any registrar of vital records or of the state department of health.

History of Section.
(P.L. 1961, ch. 87, § 1; P.L. 1972, ch. 278, § 1; P.L. 1983, ch. 198, § 2.)